Fate Machina VARDANT
by Alulim
Summary: On that fateful rainy day Shirou found it, a god lying upon a hill of swords. Will it be a god of salvation, or one of destruction? Only time will tell.
1. Prologue: God Upon the Hill of Swords

_**Prologue: God upon the hill of swords  
><strong>__July 21st, 2009_

It was much too wet.

That was all that I could think as I climbed the muddy hill, with the unceasing rain making my white hair stick to my face - and to make matters worse, I wasn't properly attired for this kind of weather.

Normally I wouldn't complain about something so out of my control, but I was already in a bad mood.

Maybe I should have just stayed in bed this morning.

**-VARDANT-**

I'd originally come to Moroboshi on Tohsaka's orders, tasked with investigating rumors of odd energy flows in the general area, but that had led to nothing but dead-ends. With nothing to do, I simply wandered the city, taking in the interesting sights of this new town (however few there were). Fuyuki was all I'd known, after all, so this was a novel experience for me. What _wasn't_ novel though, was bullying, so when I spotted a bunch of high school thugs beating up on a one-eyed middle-schooler, I intervened.

At the time, I'd thought that they were ganging up on a cripple, and as a hero of justice, that just didn't sit well with me.

...of course, after chasing the thugs away I learned that I was wrong - very wrong - and that being a superhero was tough when people didn't want, or need, to be saved.

See, as thanks for saving that kid's sorry ass, he threw a motor scooter at me with _one arm. _Not a weak throw either, it was blindingly fast. If I hadn't reinforced myself in time I might have broken more than a few bones.

Anyway, after that escapade I decided to retire to my hotel for the night, where sleep came blessedly quickly.

The next day I asked around for information on the kid from the scuffle, finding, to my surprise, that the middle-schooler, 'Moritsugu', was an infamous delinquent, notorious for constantly fighting thugs and worse with little to no regard for his own health.

By the time I finished, it was pouring, so I decided that I should check up on that 'Moritsugu' kid and get back to my hotel posthaste. Thankfully, a local housewife had been kind enough to give me detailed instructions to the apartment where he apparently lived with his older sister. Somehow, I had a very bad feeling as I approached the door, but I forced it down, thinking the gloom had just put me in a dark state of mind. The fact that the door was unlocked and was pushed open with the first rap of my fist didn't help, as it reminded me of a bad experience I'd had during the Holy Grail War, when I went to ask Kotomine about the 8th servant...Gilgamesh.

This felt like a trap...

Out of caution, I reinforced my body; my hands were twitching in anticipation, ready to bring my favored swords into being at a moment's notice. And it seemed I was right to worry, as the moment I crossed the threshold, I was assaulted with the all too familiar smell of blood.

I knew this was none of my business yet I had to proceed. I wouldn't be able to live with myself otherwise, as what kind of hero ran away from danger?

And if I'd faced down Berserker, I could certainly handle whatever fate threw me here...or so I thought.

Sadly, there was no enemy to confront, no battle to be fought - only the absolute wreck of an apartment, with furniture overturned and bits of broken glass scattered across the floor. Blood, a brilliant red in the gloom, was spattered everywhere, coating the walls and floors like fresh paint. And the source of the blood: the body of a young woman lying on the hardwood floor, a knife sticking out from in-between her breasts.

If I wasn't used to sights like this I would probably have lost it, the contents of my stomach joining the life blood of the murder victim in the destroyed room.

At this point, I really should have called law enforcement or turned this over to the professionals, but as Tohsaka said, I could be a huge idiot sometimes. And here I proved it, as I knelt down and pulled the knife from the woman's chest so I could get a closer look at the weapon.

If there was anything that I learned from television it is that you shouldn't mess with a crime-scene.

"Aha! We thought you would be back to recover that!" A voice called out from behind me, nearly startling me into dropping the blade. It seemed that I had been lax in keeping watch on my surroundings, as I hadn't been aware of their approach. "The murderer always returns to the scene of the crime, eh?"

I turned to see a rather rotund man standing in the doorway, grinning at me. A second, taller man, stood behind him, his face drawn and pale at the scene that I must have presented to them.

Unfortunately, I'd never been one for plans or for staying calm under pressure (but then, when dealing with magi, most decisions needed to be made in a split second, as they were matters of life and death), as I followed up on my first stupid act with another one: I ran. Reinforcing my skin, I jumped out the nearest window, landing with an '_oomph'_ on the street below, with the voices of the men who'd ambushed me yelling at me to come back.

This was certainly not my day.

Anyway, since I was already in such serious trouble, I figured a little more couldn't hurt: I cut through yards, jumped fences, trampled gardens, and disturbed dogs, running in a straight line as I made for my destination, the thickly forested mountain on the border of the city, the easiest place for me to lose any pursuers I might have acquired.

Huh. It seemed like I was already thinking like a fugitive…not sure I liked that.

I prayed that the men hadn't gotten a good look my face, and that they would give up pursuing me in this horrible weather.

Doubtful, but one could certainly hope.

**-VARDANT-**

I could say without preamble that I absolutely detested the rain now – I hated it almost as much as I once hated Gilgamesh…which is difficult, considering how much I once detested that man.

It was cold and wet and miserable, and made my clothes chafe against my skin. And it was wet. Did I mention it was wet?

Worse, it created mud, and mud tried to suck my feet into the ground, so that each step I took required undue effort and gave off disgusting squelching sounds.

Thankfully for my sanity, however, I managed to notice the opening to a cave before I came down with hypothermia, despite the rain plastering my hair to my eyes. Yes, it seemed rather convenient, given my plight…but at this point I needed a place to take shelter from the elements, and wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Once I cleared the entrance and got out of the rain, I let myself sag against the cave wall with a sigh.

Too many things had happened today for my tastes, and without a doubt Tohsaka will have my skin for what I did back there should she ever learn of these events.

In my weariness, it took me a few moments to notice the crunching beneath my feet, or that cracks were rapidly forming on the cave floor, with white light spilling through them. Biting back a curse I tried to dash back outside and escape the collapse of the cavern floor, but it was too late. I lost my footing and fell through into the white expanse below, with my descent abruptly halted by a giant sword suddenly sprouting from my chest.

For a moment all I could do was wonder how I'd made that, as I didn't recall having a blade like that among my arsenal.

And then I realized that that wasn't one of my blades - I had been impaled from below.

But…why didn't I feel any pain?

Well, I guess maybe the shock and my fading consciousness conspired to give me peace for once in my life - and that I was about to die. Maybe...but then I can finally see her.

_…Saber…_

**-VARDANT-**

When I woke up, my head was spinning. My only thought was that Berserker couldn't be alive again, as I didn't know anything else that could hurt me so badly. My body felt sluggish in responding to the signals I sent it, as if it was the first time it ever moved. I was sore everywhere, from my hands to my legs, my stomach, my face…my hair, and there was this odd warm pain pulsing through my being in time with my heartbeat.

I needed to make sure where I was, but when I got up to look around a lock of red hair fell into my face, so I simply brushed it away as an annoyance.

_Wait. Red hair? My hair hasn't been red for years!  
><em>  
>Inspecting the rest of my body I noticed that my skin was of a lighter shade than it used to be. Healed somehow, even though the damage there was supposedly irreversible! One scenario after another raced through my mind, driving me into a near panic about that could do something like that until I looked up and saw <em>it.<br>_  
>In that moment, I knew that was the thing would change my life. I saw, for the first time, a god.<p>

A god lying upon a hill of swords.

_****-VARDANT-****_

_July 18__th__, 2009_

Sunlight streamed through the window of Shirou's room, rousing the man from his rather..._enticing_ dream.

"Damn you, I was just about to-" the magus groused, but he was interrupted before he could finish his thought.

"...about to what, Emiya-kun?" A dangerous, overly saccharine voice inquired.

Ah. That cold voice, a sound straight out of his nightmares.

He began to pray to a God he didn't think existed - or perhaps to some incarnation of Akasha - that it wasn't who he thought it was: the Red Devil, the Tsundere Terror, Tohsaka Rin! Surely she couldn't be back from London already, proceeding to barge into his house without even calling ahead to let him know she was coming. Why, he didn't even have breakfast prepared!

Alas, when Shirou looked to the side of his futon, he found _her_ sitting there, serenely smiling like a cat that had caught the canary.

"...what are you doing in my room?" Shirou managed to ask, as in his state of shock, there wasn't much else he could think of.

Unfortunately for him, the query had a rather negative effect.

"What, you're complaining about a beautiful woman waking you up in the morning?" Rin chuckled mirthlessly. "What kind of man are you?"

That was the last thing Shirou heard before getting a foot to the face, knocking him back into the world of dreams.

**-VARDANT-**

What could I say about the woman who became my teacher, closest confidant, and friend?

Tohsaka Rin, in addition to being the idol of the high school we went to, was also a magus of great power. After the conclusion of the Fifth Grail War, she moved to London, where she continued her studies at the Clock Tower, the most prestigious center for magical learning in the world. I wasn't terribly surprised that they'd accepted her; just that she asked me to come with her as her apprentice.

I had declined because I felt that I should stay here at home. It wasn't because of anything concrete…just a gut feeling, and I'd learned to trust my instincts.

We sat at the table eating the breakfast that I (eventually) prepared after waking. Tohsaka rarely visited, as she was busy with her research most of the time, and every visit filled me with apprehension, especially now. After all, there was only one reason that she would come back to Fuyuki, a place that held far too many bitter memories for her.

She must have gathered some important information.

Information on the incident of three years ago, when Matou Sakura _vanished_.

**-VARDANT-**

We first noticed that Sakura stopped coming over to my house a few days after the ceremony - which, while unusual, I chalked it up to her being busy with college preparations. As the days turned into weeks, turned into months, and no one else had seen her either, I started to worry, and since Tohsaka had revealed that they were really sisters after we had graduated, I contact her about what was troubling me.

She came as fast as she could, since despite her tough exterior she really cared about her younger sister.

Together we went to the Matou household, and there we felt something _wrong,_ something _twisted _and _corrupted _emanating from the building. With great caution we entered, searching through all the rooms anything that might lead us to Sakura, trivial or not. We had to be on guard, as entering a magus' stronghold was akin to declaring war on him or her, and we had no idea who else might be here.

We did, oddly enough, find a room that seemed to belong to a powerful magus, with ritual symbols and the like scattered about, but all the important documents and artifacts had been gathered up and taken away, with the imprints of their dust patterns still remaining. After that detour though, we didn't find anything else out of place until we came to the mysterious door next to Sakura's room, and the stairway that lay within.

I would never forget what we found there for the rest of my life.

Worms, disgusting twisted beings, writhed upon the floor. Countless numbers of them surrounded us, filling every crevice with their cloying smell of rot and decay

Tohsaka recognized them.

She called them Crest Worms, and told me exactly what they were, and what they would do.

Absolutely horrid. Filthy horrid disgusting horrid terrible evil rotten things! What nightmare was this? Sakura had been living in this accursed place? Who did this to her? Who would do this to her?

And how did I not ever notice? What kind of hero was I, to not even see the pain of those close to me?

I was, without a doubt, a complete failure.

We decided to set the place on fire, burned it all right down to the ground, with us watching to make sure the house completely immolated itself. Before we left though, Tohsaka picked up an odd energy signature permeating the lot, one that resembled the presence of a Ghost Liner – something that was not too different from a Heroic Spirit…apparently – though Tohsaka said it seemed to lack any sort of will. Although I had no idea how one could feel something like that, I trusted her observation. She was rarely ever wrong when it came to things like this.

We thought that it had to be related to the absence of anyone at the Matou household, as there would be no other reason for it to be there, and so we tried to find what it was. But no matter how much we searched and compared to other signatures, we never came up with anything new without limited resources.

Soon enough, Tohsaka left for London again in order to have greater resources to continue the search, coming back every so often to report important findings to me before leaving almost immediately. I did worry about some of the methods she was using, as they were quite risky. If she incurred a debt with the wrong person…but there was nothing I could do. Rin was always stubborn, even more than me.

This pattern repeated itself for three years. Until now.

**-VARDANT-**

Shirou sighed as he rubbed his temples. "So, what you are saying is that there are two places radiating energy similar to the presence we detected all those years ago?"

"Exactly." Tohsaka nodded, as if proud that Shirou was capable of making that simple observation.

"So, get to the point, where are they?" Shirou asked as he brushed his hair out of his eyes - newly white, as a consequence of the stress of unlocking a Reality Marble a few months prior. (Of course, he couldn't actually do much with it. But that was another matter entirely.)

He idly wondered if something similar had happened to Tohsaka's former Servant, Archer.

"One is located in a remote area known as Akoro, and the other is in a city to the south of Fuyuki known as Moroboshi." Tohsaka replied with some annoyance in her voice. Bringing out a folded paper map from her pocket, she smoothed it out on the table. Pointing at two locations, she stared into my eyes. "I'll head to Akoro while you take Moroboshi, alright?"

Her tone left no room for questions.

"Y-yes ma'am!" Shirou hastily saluted.

Tohsaka smiled for a moment, but her expression quickly grew grim.

"Good boy, we leave in the evening. Prepare for the worst."

Shirou grew quiet at that remark, as he knew the moment of truth had come at last. In his heart of hearts, he knew that the possibility of finding Sakura was low, compared to that of charging into mortal danger without reward - just last time he had ended up fighting for his life against a Dead Apostle - but he didn't have a choice.

But he couldn't let this go, he owed Sakura that much.

So the man stood up and began to clear away the dishes, talking all the while.

"All right, but you take care of yourself too. It won't be of any use if Sakura's sister gets herself killed while looking for her."

At those words, Tohsaka snorted, remembering her partner's impetuous nature. "You hypocrite, why don't you take your own advice? You're the one who is more likely to fly face-first into danger."

They both laughed, savoring this peaceful moment while it lasted.

Both knew that what they were getting into could kill them, or worse, change them into something unrecognizable - but they couldn't give up, wouldn't give up.

For her sake, they would fight.

_[Break]_

**Author's Note:** Well, here is my first fic, for better or worse it turned out to be a crossover between Fate and the Linebarrels of Iron manga_. _I hope it turned out okay...I really do. You don't have to worry about Moritsugu, I have plans for him to appear later...but exactly when and where is a secret. This chapter was originally in two parts, the prologue and the first chapter which I posted on the Beast's Lair. I put them together here because I wanted all the chapters to be of similar length, though this might end up with longer chapters as I go on...I hope it didn't disturb the flow too much.

So in the end, I hope you like~_  
><em>

**Author's Note 2:** Well I rewrote the first part of this chapter because I discovered that I am better at first person than third. And I added a bit to the second part as well. I hope you will take to them better.

**Author's Note 3:** Thanks to AlfheimWanderer for looking over and editing this chapter. So yes, this has gotten rewritten for a second time.


	2. Chapter 1: A new God Arises

_**Chapter 1: A new God arises**_

_July 21__st__, 2009_

All I could do was helplessly stare at the being before me; its very shape confounded my senses. It was a god. That was the first thought that popped into my head, it was a god of swords.

Yes, for impaling both the metallic being and the ground around it were countless identical swords. Longer than most buildings were tall, even when broken, those blades were spread haphazardly about…almost like an earthquake or other random act of nature had caused the damage. The god itself also seemed to be missing many parts, and what was left was cracked and pitted - blue paint(?) peeling.

I then noticed that there was dried blood staining one of the blades impaling its stomach, I recalled that moments before – at least in my memory – that I was impaled by such a blade in a similar fashion to the giant. Looking down at myself I saw a large vertical scar running from just above my sternum to below my bellybutton. It was also covered in dried blood, my blood.

"That…was the thing that killed me? W-wait, I was killed! People die when they are killed! What am I doing still alive?" I looked up at the metallic god and saw that it was actually staring back, its white eyes glinting in the sparse light. With a groan of stressed metal, dirt and other debris falling from the joints, it extended out a ginormous hand out to me. "Were you the one who revived me?"

As if to answer my question the being's eyes seemed to shine with an inner light, with a groan its hand reached even further as it beckoning me to alight upon it. I had no clue whether to trust this mysterious being. On one hand it messed with my life by reviving me – I just could not stand others messing with my life, a trauma left over from my encounters with Kotomine I suppose – but you can't save others if you are dead.

It left me stumped on whether I should curse or praise my metallic benefactor.

At risk of repeating my earlier statement; this thing interfered with my life. God or no, I did not like anyone doing that…not anymore. As an unidentifiable rage broiled within me I felt my eyes burn and phantom static started ringing through my ears driving me nuts.

It was more than I could take.

I reinforced my legs and dashed forward towards the giant, kicking up a cloud of dirt. Using the outstretched hand as a platform I jumped towards its face. My fists like steel I punched through the god's right eye, the fore of the impact shattered the glass and sent fractures through the metal surrounding the eye socket.

I started laughing madly, I just couldn't help it…I was just not mentally prepared for a situation like this. A god lying discarded in a cave like nothing more than yesterday's rubbish, getting killed and subsequently revived by said god – it was just too much for me to take in all at once.

Despite losing one of its eyes, the god merely looked upon me with an air of indifference (not that it could show any other emotion given that its face was a static mask). With a loud whooshing of air and a screech of scraping steel the giant eyeball located in the center of the giant's chest jutted out, shocking me out of my sudden bout insanity. I nearly relapsed back into the comforting embrace of insanity. For located behind the eye was a large, hollow tube – countless wires and cables attaching it to the main body – containing a single chair.

To be honest it slightly reminded me of a motorcycle, what with the hand-grips and all.

I couldn't help but grin at the sheer absurdity of this situation I found myself in. This was like some stupid anime that I used to watch as a kid. What the thing wanted was obvious, and I saw no reason – other than common sense – not to answer.

I hopped of my perch on its collar and dropped into the chair with an audible thud. The tube then retracted into the giant's body, sliding into place with a hiss of displaced air. After hesitating a moment I grasped the handles, the moment my palms touches the cold metal I felt something within me 'plug' into them.

It was my magic circuits. I let out a gasp at the strange feeling. It was as if my body was expanding throughout the giant, magic pouring into a form vastly greater than my own, filling a glass that by all right I shouldn't be able to fill a fraction of. The giant's…no, _my_ circuits were thrumming with an unidentifiable power. It was a euphoric feeling.

The systems and screens surrounding my body all lit up as a single word was seared into my mind; _VARDANT_. It felt like someone was talking to me, yet there were no words spoken. This giant had _told_ me things, like how to operate it – and the fact that I _could_ operate it – all in that one 'word'. All the information had just…appeared in my mind, engraving itself on my brain.

I shook my head in an attempt to rid myself of the static that I was briefly afflicted with due to the sudden intrusion. "So I am guessing that's your name? Sounds like a strong one, fitting for a god I suppose." After that was said there was a moment of silence, broken only by the low rumble of metal scraping against stone. And then…

"_Good evening?_ _Factor?_ Wha…!" There was that voice that wasn't a voice again. And why was it 'evening'? It wasn't that late…was it? Last I recall it was still morning. Was I really knocked out – or possibly dead – for that long? Besides, wasn't it a little late for a greeting? Wasn't that something you said _before_ giving out your name? "And what do you mean by _'how can I be of service?_'? You could get me out of here for one!"

Yet, despite my voiced question and obvious confusion, there was no response. However, that short interval allowed me to gather my thoughts;

Just _what_ exactly was this giant that I was calling a god? (And, for that matter, why was I still calling it one?) Even though it looked like it was possibly forged by the hands of man…but if you took all of its intricacies into account, that was absolutely out of the question. I may not have been completely up to date with modern technology, but I was sure something like this would be impossible to build…or program. Before I could continue pondering the origins of the giant the rumbling in the background suddenly raised in volume.

VARDANT began to emit a low-pitched screech as the wounds afflicting it began to heal. The blades impaling it were pushed out, the holes repairing themselves with startling speed. Unexpectedly a tail was being pounded out of the mangled metal on the giant's rear; wings containing the very same swords that once pierced the giant attached themselves to that. Even the paint was being restored to its former vibrancy; everything was perfect once again…everything except for its right eye. For whatever reason, only the injury that I myself inflicted remained.

And then, as if listening to my earlier command, VARDANT began to move. As the giant stood its single horn scraped against the cave ceiling, causing it to collapse. Sunlight began to stream through the new openings, revealing that the rain that once annoyed me had stopped. While VARDANT's torso was rising up through the ground I saw the forest surrounding me glimmering in the sun, orange light reflecting off the water-droplets.

It painted a beautiful picture, making it seem like that 'incident' was nothing but a far-off dream.

It was then that I noticed that there were trio of men on the forest floor, one in a pristine suit, the two others in drab raincoats, looking up at VARDANT with curious expressions. The suited man in front smiled and waved enthusiastically.

How…unexpected.

**-VARDANT-**

*My name is Kunio Ishigami, and I am the CEO of the JUDA Corporation. On the surface we are just a manufacturer of medical supplies, but underneath that we have been searching the world over for the machinae. According to our sources there has been increased activity in the city of Moroboshi, if we manage to acquire that machine we will have three in our possession. As it stands we currently have JUDA (the machina) and DECIEVE, although DECIEVE lacks a factor at the moment (We are working on that). We have to gather as many of the machinae and their factors as we are able in order to prevent-*

"Sir, we are almost there."

Ishigami stopped typing on his laptop to look up at the person who spoke, Jirou Aonuma, a new member of JUDA's special taskforce. They were sitting across from each other in the back of a stretch limo; the destination was Moroboshi. Following behind them, an entourage of armored vehicles rumbled through the rain.

"Ah, thank you Jirou." Ishigami replied with a smile.

"If I may ask sir, what are you typing up?" Jirou hesitantly asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Ishigami beamed, his hands placed against his cheeks in a faux schoolgirl blush. "Aaahn~ You know, it isn't polite to pry into other people's diaries."

Jirou was silent. Why did he have to ask questions that he didn't want the answers to? As he was new to the company, he still had yet to get used to his boss' numerous…'quirks'. He would have to learn, _fast_. Otherwise his sanity – and possibly his paycheck – would be at risk.

After a moment of awkward silence the car rumbled to a stop. Both Ishigami and Aounuma stepped out into the rain, Aonuma holding an umbrella over his boss. They proceeded to walk over to a large bear of a man, made even larger by the body armor he was wearing, who stepped out of one of the armored vehicles.

"So, have everything together Capitan Igarashi?" Ishigami asked with a lopsided grin.

"Yessir, we have the modified anti-tank weapons on standby, and we have the prototype Copy ready to sortie." Igarashi responded with gusto, clenching his fist. "If I may ask, do you think this is all necessary? The scanners indicated that the machina has yet to activate."

"It is in case of any eventuality." Ishigami threw a raincoat at him. "Wear this, that outfit of yours isn't waterproof."

With Igarashi struggling to put the coat over his bulky armor, Ishigami allowed his attention to wander elsewhere. He noticed sirens and flashing lights coming from near where the target zone was, it probably wasn't a coincidence. He grabbed the attention of a few of his escorts and went to investigate. Walking over he spotted a rather rotund man in an official looking uniform talking to a taller man, standing under an umbrella, wiping the water from his face.

Approaching the two, Ishigami managed to overhear part of the conversation. "According to the eyewitness report it seems that about an hour ago a man matching the description of our suspect ran into the woods. I am surprised that he wasn't spotted sooner; white hair tends to stick out like a sore thumb. And seriously, could he have chosen a more difficult place to run to?"

Seeing a break in the man's rant, Ishigami inserted himself between the two men, holding out his hand. "My name is Kunio Ishigami, CEO of JUDA Corporation. May I speak to the person in charge here?"

"You are speaking to him." The rotund man responded, grasping the offered hand in a firm handshake. "May I ask why you are looking for me?"

Ishigami responded evenly, professionalism evident in his tone. "Well, you see we are led to believe that this area is dangerous due to the possibility of a landslide, and that everyone should clear out immediately-"

**-VARDANT-**

I looked down at the three incredulously, they see a giant metal monstrosity and their reaction is to wave at it? Was it possible that they knew about the VARDANT? Did they want something from it…or did they want the being itself? But they still know about this than I do, so I have no real choice at the moment. Information on how to speak to those outside VARDANT streamed into my head the moment I thought of that problem.

Taking the direct approach, I activated VARDANT's external speakers. Through the vibration of the giant's artificial vocal chords, my voice was broadcasted out to them.

"What do you want?" The sheer volume of my voice coming out of the god surprised even me.

"_~~~"_

The suited man in front waved down, cupping his mouth with his other hand, as if trying to get me to come to his level. It took me a moment to realize that I couldn't hear what he was saying from up here, so it seemed to be a good idea. The moment I had thought of that, however, the knowledge to magnify his voice to audible levels entered my mind. Despite that, it was only proper manners to talk face-to-face with someone. Lowering the giant's torso so its eye was level with the ground, I reinforced my body in order to prepare for the worst.

…_!_

It hurt!

My skin felt like it was bursting. Burning, itching, scratching…what was this? But while it may have hurt, the prana consumption to reinforce my muscles was considerably less than what I was used to.

Ejecting the eye-like cockpit, I exposed all the mechanical wires and tubes within to the sunlight for what must be the first time in ages. Standing up in the seat, I stared down at the men in front of me. Now that I was closer, I could make out the features of the man who I assumed must be their leader. His ink-black hair was rather long, reaching his shoulders, and he had a distinctive goatee. While his face had a few lines and wrinkles indicating early middle-age, I suspected that he was older than he looked.

Jumping off the giant's chest, I stood in front of the man. The two others, clad in raincoats, moved to intercept me, but the black-suited man waved them back. Looking at the three, one smiling impishly with the other two standing warily, I decided to introduce myself.

"Hello, my name is Shirou Emiya. May I ask who you are?" Quirking my head slightly, I waited for his response. Would he merely answer me, or would he go on the offensive?

The man chose neither. Reaching into his coat pocket to retrieve something, I soon found myself covered in confetti. Grinning like a fool, the man grasped my hand that was at my side and pulled it into a handshake.

"Greetings mister Emiya, I am JUDA Corporation's Chief Manager, Kunio Ishigami. Want a snack? I made Chirashizushi." The excited man then held out a box full of different kinds of fish, rice and assorted toppings. "Let us have a seat and talk about a few…let's say, _important _matters."

"Important matters…?" This man just came out of nowhere and proceeded to throw a small party in my face, it was almost too much. Yet his face had suddenly taken on a serious mien, all traces of the joker earlier had vanished. "You mean about this Vardant thing, don't you? Do you, umm, possibly _want_ it?"

This man, what did he want with a 'god'?

"So that's the machina's name." Ishigami responded with a smile, "It is true that we want it, that's why we came here after all. However it is you, as its factor, that we want more."

Machina…factor? There was that word again, just like what VARDANT had 'called' me earlier. Really, just what had I gotten myself into? "Factor? What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Ah, excuse me. Let me explain." Putting his hands in his pockets, Ishigami's left iris changed shape and color into what looked like a blood-red two-pronged gear. "Yes, that is what we call those chosen by the machinae. Factors are an integral part necessary for them to function to their fullest potential, the key piece if you will. I am one as well, as you can see."

Wait, there were more like VARDANT? That was impossible! These things were impossible to miss, especially since mine seemed to radiate a magical energy, so surely someone – namely the Association – would have said something about them by now if that were true. How many of these monsters had been overlooked? Or were they possibly being hidden from us by someone or something?

There was something within VARDANT that was emitting energy similar to the traces of what Tohsaka and I found at the Matou household. While I wasn't the most sensitive when it came to these things, sitting within the machina's chest made it all too easy to sniff out. The giant itself seemed to have no clue about what could be generating that energy though, as it seemed to be completely unrelated to its functions. But if there were more…then maybe one of the others was related to Sakura's disappearance.

"So there are more beings like Vardant?" I had to ask, though the answer was obvious.

"Yes. Indeed there are. There are quite a few other machinae, each with their own appearance and abilities. As for the rest, I am afraid that it is…classified." With a grin, Ishigami reached out his right hand. "If you wish to know more, however, you will have to join us."

So there _were _others like VARDANT. If I were to disregard Ishigami, and if any of the other machines had 'factors', it was possible that they could have taken Sakura. I sighed; this was going to be difficult. "Do you know where they all are?"

Ishigami simply shook his head. "Other than your Vardant, obviously, I know of five. One is mine, and another is currently in my company's possession but lacks a factor. The remaining three are with what you would call our opponents, the Katou Organization."

I had to think about this; on one hand, this JUDA Corporation had resourced that might help me in my own quest as well. But on the other, this man, Ishigami, clearly expected me to fight for them. While fighting wasn't a problem, it was _who_ I was fighting with. I had just met this guy and I wasn't sure I could trust him. I would have to step carefully otherwise I might end up regretting it.

"What exactly do you expect from me? If innocents are to be harmed I will not join you." Shirou stated with some force.

The man blinked, blinked again, then roared with laughter. "Of course not! What we want from you is mainly defensive in nature. My machina Juda is not capable of being operated right now and Deceive lacks a factor. We just want you to hold the fort, so to speak. We may ask you to go look for machinae and their factors if we believe to have found them though, so you will get to go on trips from time to time." Ishigami grinned again. "Other than that though, the pay is good and free medical care."

I balked at the obvious sales pitch. I would be the first to admit that I was terrible with subterfuge, and equally bad at noticing it, but I didn't exactly have much choice here. This Ishigami man had information that I needed, so…

"Yes, I will join you."

Ishigami started clapping, his face breaking into yet another grin. "Good, good. Give us a few days to get all the documents in order. But first, I would like to be the first to say Welcome to JUDA! Now all we need is a party, plenty of cake, a keg of booze, a few strip-"

"But I have a few conditions." I had a bad feeling about where he was going with that, so I decided that I needed to interrupt him there.

"Conditions, of course. I would never ask you to join us without giving something in return. As long as they are within reason, I'll see what I can do." Ishigami responded with a nod.

"If I find myself disagreeing with what you are doing, I would hold the right to leave unmolested. You are not to do any form of experimentation on my body, invasive or otherwise. And most importantly,

I would like you to find the woman named Sakura Matou."

**-VARDANT-**

_July 24__th__, 2009_

Shirou stood alone facing a large, run-down castle. A solitary grave stood out in front, the only object marking the vast clearing. Flowers were set upon the top with great care, white as snow. The surrounding grass had begun to take over the plot of land, showing signs of infrequent visits. Yet the gravestone itself showed no such wear, as if the fairies of the forest protected it. There were no words spoken, for there was no need for such things. After what seemed like hours, Shirou turned around and walked back the way he came.

Away from the grave marked Illyasviel von Einzbern.

_[Break]_

**Author's Note:**Well, here it is, chapter two. If you are wondering why Shirou never thinks of the possibility of Sakura being dead, it is because to him she _must_ be alive, he cannot even consider otherwise. And on the metallic skin, when Shirou reinforced his body, he also reinforced the nanomachines within it causing them to to berserk. Think of the metallic bits as a temporary cancer, if you will.

Well, hope you liked it~_  
><em>


	3. Chapter 2: A God's Trial

_**Chapter 2: A God's trial**_

_Location: Unknown_

Shirou found himself in a gray world. The ground was as smooth and reflective as glass, and there were no other features other than…gray.

Shirou heard the sound of an old-fashioned projector start from behind him. The magus turned around as fast as his reflexes would let him, just in time to see what seemed an academy leader, except it was in the shape of a dual-pronged gear, counting down on a screen that wasn't there a moment ago. Soon the countdown reached zero, and then he saw, on that screen, written in English letters with Japanese underneath,

The Story of…

_**Human Extermination**_

Why Did Childhood Have to End?

"A story of **mankind's extinction** that even you can understand"

Before he could get a look at the rather morbid sounding presentation, Shirou noticed an incessant noise coming from all around him, quickly getting louder and louder. It got so bad that he had to cover his ears and-

**-VARDANT-**

_July 26__th__, 2009_

Shirou bolted up in bed, the blaring of the alarm interrupting his dream. Panting, body damp with sweat, he smashed the snooze button on the clock. The sudden movement caused the magus to cringe and clutch his head, pain spiking through it.

"Gah, what happened last night? I remember the president force-feeding me something alcoholic, beer probably …and anything after that is a blank."

Shirou then heard a murmuring noise from his left side; he recognized it as someone whose sleeping was disturbed. What was another person doing in his bed? A shiver went up his spine, forcing it ramrod straight. The magus slowly, almost mechanically, turned his head, afraid to know who, or what, lay there. He looked, he saw, he screamed.

Like a little girl.

"IIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

For lying there, modesty barely kept by the blanket, was one grinning Kunio Ishigami.

"Good morning Shirou~"

**-VARDANT-**

_July 25__th__, 2009_

"Here we have the recreation center, it has all the latest equipment as well as a full sized Olympic swimming pool."

"Sounds…nice." I managed to mumble, too tired to really care.

Ishigami nodded excitedly while prancing around the hallway like a young girl. It disturbingly reminded me of how Ilya sometimes acted, an Ilya with a goatee; I need something highly alcoholic to wipe that horrendous image from my brain. Immediately.

Man was I exhausted; it really took all I had just to not fall on the floor asleep right there. Ishigami had decided to give me the grand tour, saying that he didn't want me to get lost. I had initially agreed thinking it was a good idea, but I had vastly underestimated the size of JUDA's main building. Impossible as it may, it seemed even bigger on the inside.

It was big enough on the outside for sure.

That damn man seemed to have an unlimited supply of energy, dashing to and fro pointing out trivial things, like where each and every bathroom was. And why would I need to know how many portraits of Bob Sapp there were on the fifteenth floor?

Who the hell is Bob Sapp anyway?

Earlier in the day I had arrived in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. And also home to the JUDA headquarters.

The impression I got from Tokyo was vastly different from Fuyiki. It is much larger for one, seemingly going on forever in each direction, tall buildings scraping against the heavens as far as the eye can see. Its population was constantly buzzing about in some manner or another, the adults in business suits and the teenage population in all kinds of colorful clothes. I even saw a girl with more makeup on her face then there was face to put makeup on, it was completely ridiculous.

What's with kids these days?

If it wasn't for the limo the president sent, I was sure that he would have never made it to JUDA headquarters. I had decided that I needed a better view, so I emulated a certain archer and took to the roofs. It was honestly no better; I had not yet learned to reinforce delicate organs such as my eyes yet so it turned out to be a useless endeavor. How they found me standing alone on top of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, I certainly will never know.

The ride to the company building was a rather long one, it seemed that I had gotten far more lost than I had originally thought. I had ended up in the Minato ward, while JUDA was located in Ōta, the Haneda district to be exact. Right near the very airport I had come in on, it was embarrassing to say the least.

While in the car I was introduced to Ishigami's personal secretary, a young woman named Yui Ogawa. It seemed that it was her first week on the job, she was working part time from high school, and so we were on common ground as being new to JUDA. As we talked, the black-haired girl warned me about president's rather annoying penchant for pulling pranks on his employees.

The headquarters, as it turns out, was built on a large artificial island attached to the mainland by the road they were on. The building itself was a large, gray, vaguely cylindrical and completely windowless structure, with what appeared to be a white colored, more standard looking building attached to it by a covered pathway. I managed to see that there were a myriad of smaller structures and roads surrounding the main one, there were all kinds of small buildings and storage silos scattered around.

It even appeared to have what looked like an airport for bringing in supplies, though the runway was far from finished. It looked, to me, to be quite high-tech even though ongoing construction was evident. A large black sign identified it as the Shin Ukishima construction site.

Once we arrived to the entrance of the secondary building, I noticed that bear-man that I met on the mountain was staring at me, seemingly boring into my face with his eyes. Miss Ogawa pointed out that he was Captain Shinobu Igarashi, head of JUDA's conventional military strength. It seemed to me like the man had no small bit of animosity towards me, made quite evident by his glare; I had absolutely no clue why though.

As if to separate us before we got in a fight, Miss Ogawa quickly led me into the structure, and into a large, well-lit foyer. Trees were planted in neat rows, along with modern-looking chairs underneath. Looking up I saw that it extended all the way to the roof, with what had to be dozens of floors worth of hallways open to the skylight. If they were aiming to impress me with this, I am afraid they succeeded.

I was forcefully brought out of my reverie when Yui urgently stuffed me into a large elevator. It turned out that we were in there with a rather effeminate man in a suit with strait black hair going down to his shoulders; he looked over and grinned at me.

"So you must be the famous Shirou Emiya that I have been hearing so much about from President Ishigami. My name is Takuto Endou, head of JUDA's Technological Development Division; it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

He seemed like a nice enough guy; so I smiled back. After all, being on good terms with the rest of the employees was a good start.

"It's nice to meet you too, so you are the one in charge of taking care of Vardant, am I right?"

The man gave off a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head, it seemed to me like he was somewhat embarrassed.

"Ah yeah, about that…the machinae pretty much take care of themselves. All I do is study them and any related phenomena." He paused and put his hand in his pants pocket. "Speaking of which, my wife and I are currently running an experiment on Deceive to see what makes a factor. Both of my children are convinced that they will get to pilot it, they are of that age I suppose."

I nodded; I was a bit surprised that he had let his children know of the machina so easily. But I know nothing about raising children, so I can't really judge. A photograph shoved in my face interrupted my contemplation, on it were to identical looking children.

"Look at my Izuna and Shizuna, aren't they adorable? One look at their faces and all my fatigue flies away! Uwaaaaa~ they are a ray of sunshine, brightening up my day!" Endou was wiggling all over the place in ecstasy; it was one of the oddest sights I had ever seen.

It was in that moment that I realized that I had ended up in a veritable madhouse.

**-VARDANT-**

After exiting the elevator we, for it seemed that Takuto had followed Miss Ogawa and me, were led through an ornate set of double doors and into a large office. It was sparsely decorated, with the only furniture being the desk and the large chair behind it, along with a pair of sofas facing them. The checkered floor was polished to a shine and I could easily see my reflection in it. I had an inexplicable feeling that there was something humongous sleeping underneath it, waiting to awaken. Even though something of the size I felt couldn't fit in the floor beneath, let alone the building.

I also noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was a small traditional Zen garden off to one side, lit up by the light coming through the large windows that made up the far wall. But my attention was largely elsewhere, for sitting at the desk, chin resting on his fists, was Kunio Ishigami. He waved at us with one of his hands, and gave one of his grins that I had already begun associating with him being pleased with himself.

"Hello Mister Emiya, how are taking to the big city? I hope it is to your liking, and now that you are here I'd like to officially welcome you to JUDA Corp." Here he stood up and opened his arms wide, as if to embrace us all. "I believe you already met my secretary, Miss Ogawa and the head of R&D, Mister Endou. I pray that you all get along, because from this moment on we will be like one great big family." He paused again and pointed at himself with his thumb quite dramatically. "So you can call me daddy!"

"…" I was lacking in words to describe what I was feeling at that moment.

But it seemed that there was one person who did not have that trouble. Faster that I would expect from a normal girl, Miss Ogawa whacked him on the back of the head with her ever-present clipboard. Surprisingly Ishigami fell flat on his face; I got the impression that he was overacting for Miss Ogawa's benefit. After all, he was a factor like me. As it turned out that the machina's nanomachines enhance our bodies and make them stronger, so there was no way that a simple slap like that to actually knock him over. What he was doing was sorta sweet, in an odd way.

"You never let me have any fun." Ishigami lowered his head and sighed, "but back to business I suppose. Mister Emiya, on paper you will officially be known as the head of JUDA's special taskforce. Obviously this is machina related, and any subsequent factors joining us will be your 'subordinates' so to speak. Your pay will be to your liking I hope. As for living quarters, there are employee exclusive apartments on the island, if you so wish you can stay there."

I shook my head; I didn't want to become too dependent on them, just in case if things went south. "I've already found a place to stay in Den-en-chōfu and had my luggage delivered there, but thank you anyway." I had told Tohsaka that I had found a lead and needed to stay in Tokyo for an undisclosed amount of time, which was mostly true. Without protest or questions, she had gotten me a nice small suburban house to stay in for the duration of my visit. How she managed to do that, I won't even bother asking. I suppose it must be one of the perks of being pretty high up in the Clock Tower's social ladder.

Ishigami's smile dimmed somewhat but nodded. "I see, that works out fine I suppose. How abou-"

It was then that Takuto spoke up for the first time since leaving the elevator. "But…we can be neighbors! You can wake up every day and see my children when you go out the door; that will give you the proper motivation to do anything!" He grasped both of my shoulders and shook them. "Come on, stay here, please-please-please."

I had to shove his face away from mine; he was getting that pushy. "I am afraid that I'll have to decline."

He started to whine. "But whyyyyyyyyyyy. We can have so much fun together! My-Ow!" Mister Endou soon suffered the same fate as the president, execution via clipboard. After getting back up from the floor he harrumphed and crossed his arms over his chest, the very image of a petulant child. "Fine, I'll be serious, for now."

Miss Ogawa smiled an overly saccharine smile that reminded me of a certain someone. "It would be best if you didn't impose on Mister Emiya so much, if you continue to do so I may have to take punitive measures."

Oh no, not another one. I can barely handle the one I have.

After laughing at my apparent distress, Ishigami turned a serious face to me. "Also Mister Emiya, it would be best if you kept your head down for a while until this fiasco about the murder of Yuriko Moritsugu is taken care of. The authorities have a white haired man as a suspect and lack any DNA evidence since you took the knife with you so you should be safe, but it is still a good idea to be discreet just in case." The president sighed as he took a seat at his deck once again. He typed a bit on the computer integrated into the desk, and a large text document came up on the screen. "Through our own investigations the JUDA investigative unit has come to the conclusion that it was a local gang that did the crime, but it may take a while to convince the authorities of that. Courts of law have no effect on someone who has become a factor, but it would still be good if you were careful for a while."

"What would have happened if I turned out to be the one who killed her?" I had to ask.

"I would have you killed, and then try to locate a more suitable factor for Vardant." He answered honestly with a deadpan tone. I didn't even blink as I had expected as much.

To be honest, I had purposely put that murder out of my mind. Even if I had never met the woman, I still wished that I could have saved her. If only I had arrived earlier I could have prevented the whole thing. But if she were never killed I wouldn't have this opportunity…

I was interrupted from my morbid thoughts by an incessant yanking on my arm. It turned that while I was spacing out President Ishigami had snuck up on me and was in the process of dragging me out the doors. "It is time that I, Kunio Ishigami, give you the grand tour of JUDA, it may be incomplete but it is still quite expansive. We wouldn't want you to get lost, so come with me!"

Ishigami took my silence as a yes, so he ended up dragging me out the door and down the hall. It seemed like I wouldn't be able to escape so I went along with him, unfortunately it seemed to be the most effective measure of dealing with the eccentric man.

"First stop, the cafeteria."

**-VARDANT-**

During the tour of the recreational facilities, I noticed that they had one of those jumping bars, like the one we had at my school. I would have to see if I could finally jump over one after all these years. Though after leaving that behind it seemed we had ended up outside the main building and were approaching one of the squat, cylindrical structures.

I was interrupted from my musings, as was becoming the trend, by being drug towards a large elevator. When the doors slid open I noticed that Takuto Endou was waiting there, he waved us in.

I was curious to where we were headed, the numbers on the elevator screen said that we were decently far underground. As if he read my mind, Takuto answered my unasked question. "We are headed to the underground plant, it is where we keep the machinae and any related equipment. It has space for all of the known machines, just in case…except for Shangri-La and Glain Neidr, as they are far too large and are known to be in the hands of another organization anyway." After saying that part, he looked somewhat sheepish.

That made sense, but there was something that had been bothering me for a while, something that needed to be answered before I went any further. "President, how exactly do you know how many machinae there are if they aren't all located yet?" It was quite odd that they knew about things that hadn't yet come to be, it left me wondering if they had a magus, other than me of course, in their employ somewhere.

The president took a pose reminiscent of one Tohsaka would use when lecturing me. "That is actually quite simple, Mister Emiya, my Juda told me." He nodded like this was some kind of great revelation, which in some ways it was. "It feeds me all kinds of information in various forms, your Vardant may do so at one point as well."

That was an interesting thing to learn, but before I could contemplate the implications any further the elevator beeped and the doors opened. We emerged into a large walkway leading to an even larger circular platform with all kinds of white-coated men fluttering about. At the end of it I spotted an oddly barrel shaped object with many wired and tubes extending into the blackness both above and below. I promptly spotted a head jutting out from its center; I realized that this must be a machina.

Takuto noticed where I was looking. "That, Shirou, is the machina designated as the Deceive. Unlike your Vardant apparently, it is a known non-combat type. We are led to believe that it may specialize in information warfare, but we are not completely sure." He scratched the back of his neck. "It lacks a factor so we cannot yet test its abilities; all we do know for sure is that it is probably the oldest model among all the known machina." He then put his hands on his hips proudly. "Surprisingly we found it just laying there within the Grand Canyon in America; thankfully we have allies in the Sighted Marshall Technologies Company located there so JUDA was able to take custody of it without too much of a fuss."

It was an interesting shape to say the least, I had expected all of the machinae to be humanoid in form, like mine, but it seems I was off in that assumption.

The president took the pause in the conversation as a time to speak up. "Mister Emiya, would you please call upon your Vardant so we can hook it up here, storing it here rather than in its dimensional rift will allow us to study it and facilitate it in repairing itself."

I did see that they had a point there, and it also explained where VARDANT went after I dismounted it back in Moroboshi. I had initially assumed that its disappearance was like that of the Servants' astralization, but it seemed that it was teleportation, which bordered on the True Magic. That tidbit sure made me wonder even more about their origins, they had magic circuits like a living being despite being completely man-made apparently without the use of magecraft, and they can teleport. Just what were they?

I mentally shook my head; I was never good at that kind of thinking. Outwardly I nodded in agreement and raised my right arm, and I felt my eyes shift form. "Come, Vardant!" A visible electric pulse went through my raised arm; I could feel the nanomachines turning it into an antenna and my body into a transmitter, sending a signal into the ether.

With the whooshing sound of displaced air, VARDANT appeared near me, its lower body not visible due to the lack of lighting beneath us. It gave off a noise sounding like a mix between the growl of a beast and the chime of a bell, as if proudly announcing its presence to all those around it. The lackeys, as I decided to call them, were sent into an utter frenzy by the sudden appearance of the giant.

Takuto literally seemed to salivate at the prospect of inspecting the machine, he instantly commanded the lackeys to get to connecting VARDANT up to the system...whatever that was. Computer screens lit up as the lackeys went about setting things up.

After hooking a bunch of large cables up to VARDANT, Takuto came over to me, eyes almost sparkling. "Uwaaawaa! This one seems to be a multi-purpose close combat type. Binders attached to the tail stabilizer containing many weapons and multiple hardpoints all over the body to support different kinds of equipment. You, my friend, have brought over a metaphorical goldmine, this baby will certainly help in our research." After he said that he rattled off all kinds of technical jargon that I didn't understand and then ran off with the other scientists, leaving me stymied.

Nanoceramic armor, endoskeleton integrity, nanomachine levels, it all went over my head. The president laughed at my dazed look shaking me out of my stupor. Reminded of his presence I decided to ask about something that was obviously missing. "Where is your machina, President Ishigami? You said that this is where they are all kept, yet I don't see yours."

In response the president simply pointed up, following his finger I saw nothing but the darkness above. "My Juda is actually located in that huge silo attached to the main building, you probably saw it on your way here, as my machina is simply too large to fit in the underground plant. Also I generally try to keep it a secret from most people, so it being in a different location, able to only be accessed by me, is quite convenient that way. Also it is currently being used as the core for all systems at JUDA, so it can't be moved at the moment."

I nodded, it made little sense to me why he would decide to hide it from people that have been in his employ for a while, but tell me, someone who just joined. I simply decided not to think too deeply on that, it would save me the headache.

There seemed like there was little productive for me to do here, so I toke President Ishigami as much. "President, I think I may go take a break and head back up to the recreational center to meditate on all this."

He nodded. "Sure, go right ahead, that is basically what it is there for."

After receiving that affirmative I went back to the elevator and hit the ground floor button. The ride up gave me a moment to sort out my thoughts somewhat.

So, machinae feed information to their factors and Ishigami wanted his JUDA to be kept a secret from the rank-and-file; such things will give me a headache if I'm not careful. I sure hope that the rec room has a dojo.

**-VARDANT-**

Sadly the center lacked a proper dojo, so I wasn't exactly completely comfortable here. But I had to make do with what I had, so I found a quiet corner near a window overlooking the ocean to meditate. Some of the other employees there gave odd look but I ignored them, for there was something more important that I needed to think about.

For earlier I had discovered that something was interfering with my odic circulation.

I could use it for reinforcing my body just fine, in fact it seemed even better than before, but the moment I tried to trace something it was like I slammed into a brick wall. Something was preventing me from using my prana outside of my body; this left me with rather limited options as I relied on my projection far too often in a fight.

I suppose that it left my Reality Marble sealed of, and I had worked so hard on it too.

I also had discovered that when I reinforce my body for extended periods of time metallic growths, for a lack of a better term, start to appear on my body. It looked like some kind of exoskeleton was forming, it creeped me out to be honest.

I glanced at my skin; nothing seemed different at all on the outside, so nobody would expect metal to spontaneously sprout out of it given the slightest provocation. The nanomachines may have rejuvenated my hair, but my skin was, oddly enough, still a slightly charred brown color. It seemed like the damage done there was even beyond their ability to completely fix, even though it was certainly much better than before.

So with both of those problems, I was left with quite a limited range of abilities. If I were caught in a fight now, I would probably lose unless I called upon VARDANT. It seemed that while I was blessed with great power, an equal amount was taken away.

The sound of footsteps approaching me interrupted my meditation; I looked up and saw Miss Ogawa approaching me.

"The president wanted me to let you know that we are having your welcoming party now, so if you would come with me. We can't begin without who this party is about after all."

"I take it that if I don't show up he'll come get me himself? And I won't like that one bit will I?" I knew that much about the president.

Miss Ogawa shook her head and motioned for me to follow her, looking out the window I noticed that the sun had gone down. Apparently I had spent longer meditating than I had originally thought.

I was led back into the president's office and through the double doors. Upon entering I was his with countless streamers and bits of confetti obstructed my vision. After brushing the bits of colorful paper out of my face I saw that the room had been decorated with balloons and banners with 'Welcome to JUDA Shirou Emiya' written upon them.

It also seemed that there was the whole of the science department stuffed in here, people were rubbing shoulders wherever they went. After meeting my eyes, Takuto Endou quickly dragged a petite woman with short black hair over to me and introduced her as his wife, Wako. It seemed like he was just as obsessed with her as he was with his children, Takuto was a family man through and through.

Ishigami approached me and directed my to the buffet, it was filled with all sorts of sushi. It seemed that the president had quite the taste for the raw fish. There was also quite the collection of fine wines and sake, I never got into the habit of drinking so I didn't know what the quality of the drinks gathered here but I could see that they were all quite expensive.

"Eat, drink, and be merry Shirou, this is your party so you need to have fun!" The man grabbed a large bottle containing some kind of spirit and poured me a glass. "I heard that you have some relations with the Einzberns of Germany. They are quite famous around those parts for their brewing…so I imported some of their best hoping that it might be to your liking."

Honestly Ilya had never mentioned any of the Einzbern's more mundane endeavors, only that they were really good alchemists and to stay far away from them, like in another country, at all times. I hope the president didn't come into contact with any of them and mention my name; or I am completely screwed. They hold a massive grudge against me for destroying the grail, even if it turned out to be nothing but a corrupted puddle of world-destroying filth.

"What's with the gloomy face? Drink up, drink up! What part of 'this is a party' do you not understand?" After saying his part Ishigami proceeded to drain the whole bottle down my throat, I had to swallow or else I might have choked…or drowned. "See? Now you are having fun!" Says you.

The rest of the party ended up with me being in a complete daze, whatever the president fed me was too much for my system. After making a fool out of myself Takuto offered to escort me to a guest room, making sure I got there before returning. I barely managed to flop onto the bed; I vaguely overheard someone that sounded like Miss Ogawa say something about Ishigami and boxers before I went to sleep.

**-VARDANT-**

_July 26__th__, 2009_

Ishigami laughed at the face Shirou was making, to him it was worth it sharing a bed with another man just to see something like this. He stood up and stretched the kinks in his neck, sleeping in a bed made for one person with another couldn't be good for the spine.

"What are you doing in my bed?" Shirou demanded. He did notice, however, that the shameless man was completely dressed below the waist and was in the process of putting a shirt on.

"Messing with you of course. It is just his way of getting kicks." A voice from behind Shirou proclaimed. He turned around to se Yui Ogawa standing there with an aggravated expression. "President please, you are going to scare him off and then where will we be? Without a combat-ready machina! So can you tone down your impishness a little?"

Ishigami shook his head as if her statement aggrieved him. "Why must you ruin my fun, but I do digress it is time for Mister Emiya to get along. It is his day off before the big test, so he should relax for a while"

That caused Shirou's ears to perk up. "Test, what kind of test?"

Ishigami grinned. "A combat test, of course. You will be pitting your Vardant against some of our prototype Copies. The Copies are robots based on what we can understand about the machinae, while they may be much weaker they are also more numerous. We will use that to test out your combat potential in Vardant. The test begin tomorrow at half past ten, so be ready and make use of your day off."

"Sounds good, I look forward to see what I am up against. See you tomorrow then." Shirou smiled and nodded, he bowed to both of them before gathering up his things and making his way out the door.

After he made sure Shirou was out of earshot, Kunio Ishigami addressed his secretary. "Miss Ogawa, could you please remind me to send the investigative team to inspect Mister Emiya's home town? There are some discrepancies in his files and history that I want cleared up. He seems to be quite the mystery."

Yui simply nodded. "Yes sir."

**-VARDANT-**

_Location: Unknown_

Deep within the darkness something stirred. The sounds of countless worms screeching in their mockery of the cycle of life permeated the area. The noise caused by their birth, fornication, and death throes easily disguised the fact that there was another, even filthier creature among them. A pair of black, rotting eyes opened while a voice that would make any mortal man cringe spoke out to the darkness.

"It seems like things have finally been set in motion, the time now draws near. The grail may be gone but there are other ways to get what I want now. Right, Assassin?"

All that could be seen of the being that the decrepit voice spoke to, among all that filth, was a pristine white mask, made in the shape of a skull.

_[Break]_

It's Time for…

**THE TIGER DOJO**

The Tiger Dojo is a strange hint corner.

If you would like to beat the game by yourself,

Or if you would like to keep the characters' images, please be warned.

Taiga: Hello! Is everyone doing fine? An hour of gaming a day, for all of you who died so easily, this is the assistance cor-

Ilya: -Is what she would say were this the actual game and not a poorly executed piece of fan work.

Taiga: That is quite harsh Senior Student, for someone who is dead anyway.

Ilya: Hmph! At least I was mentioned, unlike a certain wild animal. It seems that the author forgot all about you.

Taiga: Waaaaah! You didn't have to remind me, and don't call me an animal! Well, putting that aside. We have a special guest joining us today to answer some of our questions, please welcome Mister Vardant!

_*Crash*_

VARDANT: Kyuuuuun-~!

Ilya: Osu! Mister Vardant seems to have smashed the dojo! He is simply too big!

VARDANT: Kyuuuuun-~!

Taiga: Waaaaaah! I just had Senior Student wax the floors! Now she has to do it all over again! Bad robot, bad!

Ilya: Whaaaaaat? You were the one who called the big brute here in the first place! You should clean it!

Taiga: It is the responsibility of the students to do all the grunt work when the masters are too lazy to do it themselves.

Ilya: You are not bothering to hide the fact that you just simply don't want to work, are you…

Taiga: Nope! It seems that we may have to put this episode of the Tiger Dojo on hold, at least until we rebuild. So see you next time!

VARDANT: Kyuuuuun-~!

Ilya: Your not helping!

_[End]_

**Author's Note:** Well this chapter turned out to be longer than the other two combined, I like~ I made the Deceive twins' father an expy of Maes Hughes from FMA, along with a Star Driver reference in there due to his name. For those who asked, yes Moritsugu will appear later, and in an important role too...after all, what would have happened if he never was accused of murdering his sister, thus never realizing his best friend's treachery? Be prepared for an action scene in the next chapter. Also, for those of you who don't know: An academy leader is the countdown they have in the beginning of those _really_ old movies.

I don't want to have to ask, but please review. It will tell me how I am doing on this and I want that since this is my first time doing anything like this.


	4. Chapter 3: A God's First Steps

_**Disclaimer: I own as much as an earthworm does.**_** _Unless the creators of these series happen to be earthworms...then I own less._**

**_Chapter 3: A God's first steps_**

_July 26th, 2009_

I had spent my day off getting things settled in my new home-away-from-home. It was a modest sized house located in the suburbs of Tokyo, with a second floor and two bedrooms. Sadly it was more modern in style than the one I lived in for so long, so that would certainly take some getting used to. I would miss watching the sunset from the porch, drinking tea while relaxing. Thankfully though the house was in a relatively quiet part of the neighborhood so cars wouldn't be whooshing past at all hours. Plus the place had a large kitchen, even bigger than the one I was used to.

Earlier I had contacted Tohsaka to ask whether she had found anything in her trip to Akoro, apparently other than a few old legends and odd traditions, the village made up of senior citizens and their caretaker seemed normal enough. She felt no trace of abnormal activity, but did mention that the hot springs there were absolutely divine. Maybe I should mention the place to President Ishigami, he might be able to find something there that Tohsaka was unable to. If nothing else it might be a good vacation spot for me.

I truly didn't want her to get involved in this madness; she had enough on her plate dealing with the politics of the Clock Tower, which left her little time for anything else. She just might overload if she learns about all this, plus it was probably safer to keep her ignorant…though she would kill me if she found out I was keeping secrets from her. A gandr to the face would certainly be the least of my worries then.

I sighed and rubbed my hair, where has my simple life gone? While I didn't regret any of my decisions, I did somewhat miss the days where everything was as it seemed without any hidden facets to it. Suddenly needing some fresh air, I opened up the large window in the living room that led to the back yard.

"Meow."

Sitting in the grass was a black cat. It had a large bow tied around its neck signifying that it was probably owned by one of my new neighbors. It stared at me with its intelligent red eyes for what seemed like a long while before licking one of its paws. Before I could fetch it something to eat it jumped onto the brick wall dividing my yard from the next one, and dashed away.

Here was yet another sign that I really am not good with animals, which is why I never kept a pet. "Sigh…"

I closed the window and went upstairs, the second floor only held the two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a hallway closet. I wonder if Tohsaka was implying anything with the second bedroom, if so I completely did not get it. I could probably use it for storing large objects…since I am unable to project my swords maybe it could be converted into an armory?

Thankfully Tohsaka had sent most of the furniture I usually used daily, so that was a touch of the normal in this new environment. I truly didn't appreciate her efforts enough; I should send her something nice as a gift. Though she is a practical person so I bet she would only really like jewels for her magecraft, and those were completely beyond my price range. Although I might be able to actually afford some with this new paycheck coming in from JUDA, it certainly paid more than simply doing odd jobs around Fuyuki. She would certainly ask where I had come by the money though, and I couldn't tell her that I was a giant robot pilot.

Well, there was no use thinking about that stuff. I needed to focus on more practical matters; like that I needed to stock up on ingredients and foodstuffs. Unfortunately I didn't know any good stores so I had to just go to one of the commercial supermarkets. After setting the furniture in their rightful places I locked up the house and was on my way.

It was a long walk to the market, as it was in the city proper and not near the residential area. I admittedly needed a better mode of transport. Though after my…personal experience with that motor scooter a few days ago I was rather hesitant to get one. I could still feel the imprint of it on my face.

After roughly half an hour of walking I came upon the large supermarket that I had spotted on my earlier excursion into the city. I ended up getting enough food to last me approximately a month, thankfully my body was strong enough to carry it all. On the way back, so faint it was almost as if it was naught but an illusion, I smelt the harshness of the desert sands mixed with the cloying scent of blood.

Suddenly I felt a stabbing pain on the back of my neck and felt a foreign pressure intruding on my mind, the nanomachines within me rebelling at the unwanted trespass. Somehow I heard VARDANT's cry ring out in anger inside my head causing the foreign presence within it to retreat. Turning around I managed to see a thin wire attached to my upper spine, the glint of it in the sun the only thing giving it away. It quickly detached from me and disappeared into the air.

I turned my head towards what I guessed was the source of the wire, the woman, for she had the figure of such, quickly turning down an alleyway in retreat. She was wearing vibrant deep purple hat that looked quite regal, a long purple braid swaying with her hurried steps. Her beauty stunned me; with skin tanned a deep brown by the sun and her aristocratic face drew me in like a magnet. The clothes she was wearing were as exotic as the woman herself, and gave away the fact that she must be some kind of magus.

The people surrounding her seemed to not notice her presence at all and just parted around her and let her pass completely unmolested.

I dashed towards the alley where she had disappeared into only to find it completely empty; the shouts of people I disturbed in my mad dash ringing out from behind me. The damn magus got away; if she discovered some of my secrets from that mental intrusion I was doomed, Reality Marbles are forbidden territory. There was the possibility that she would send enforcers after me, but there was nothing I could do. I decided that pursuing what is likely a dead trail at this time would be a worthless endeavor, especially with my groceries weighing me down. So I headed back to the place I now called home, but I decided to keep a look out for that scent. That one was just too dangerous to leave alone with what she possibly knew.

It was already dark by the time I got home; most of the houses near mine were already quieting down for the night. After putting the perishables in the fridge, I decided to head for bed early; I had a big day tomorrow after all. Before closing the curtains of the window in my new room I noticed the black cat from earlier was sitting on the barrier wall again staring at me with its red eyes. After giving it a wave I shut the curtains and turned out the light before flopping down on my bed (which came with the house, no more futons for me!), not even caring that I didn't change out of the clothes that I had been wearing, sleep thankfully came upon me quickly.

**-VARDANT-**

_ A &__ys%6th, 2__Ø5?_

Fire everywhere, explosions destroying, blood painting the walls, ruined buildings scattered about, screaming women, murder from the air, monsters devouring men, beams of light raining down from the sky.

**Death. Destruction. Mayhem.**

This and more, Shirou saw, whilst standing atop what he recognized as the Wako store located in Ginza.

He watched as countless numbers of VARDANTs came down from the sky, bringing destruction wherever they went. He looked upon hordes of silver samurai-like machinae smashing everything in their path to kill the same VARDANT units. Fighter planes rained beams upon all that was on the ground, aiming at anything that moved. He saw a skeleton shaped machina pick up countless numbers of lifeless human bodies with its wire-like tentacles, stuffing their burnt and bloodied corpses into its own chest.

And he watched as a single-eyed demon destroyed them all.

Helplessly Shirou looked on, unable to do anything to save any of them, unable to be a hero.

"S-stop it…Please, Stop it!"

**-VARDANT-**

_July 27th, 2009_

I bolted awake; I could feel the sweat sliding down my body. W-what the hell was all that? Was that the 'feeding information' thing the president was talking about? If so, it was disturbingly like the dreams I once received from my link to Saber, I wonder if that is why the machinae smelled vaguely similar to the way the Servants did.

I had to shake these images off; there was an important event for me today. I couldn't let these odd images distract me, not until I had the time to sort through them. But there was one thing that stood out in my mind was that there were multiple VARDANTs there, the image of the multitudes of them, with their slight variations in looks and equipment, burning itself in my mind.

I decided that I needed a shower, a long one.

But I couldn't shake this feeling of emptiness that came upon me by seeing those images, what was missing? It had been there ever since I died back there on the mountain, an ever present notion of that there was something gone from within me. A cruel void that only reared its head when my ironclad mind weakened, the helplessness I felt in the dream brought that impression to the forefront of my thoughts.

A wave if lightheadedness interrupted my introspection.

After entering the shower I turned the nozzle up to the max setting. The scalding hot water hitting my back helped distract me from thinking about my problems. If I dwell on them too much I would never get anything done. Getting out of the shower and drying myself off I noticed out the window that the cat was in my yard again. I wondered if there was something of interest to it on the property, a rodent hole perhaps?

The phone ringing distracted me from inspecting the creature of the feline persuasion. Especially due to the fact that the only person that had this number was Rin. Picking it up it turned out to be the president; he knew where I lived apparently. The man stated that there would be someone coming to pick me up to take me to JUDA in about an hour and forty-five minutes.

Certainly saved me time trying to walk or the money by taking the train, but was still creepy. That man finds things out too easily, it makes me worried that he might find out that I am a magus…then again he may have found out already. If that is true, I do wonder what he will end up doing.

I made myself a cup of tea and some simple rice dishes for breakfast and sat down at the table in wait for my ride. I had an old transistor radio that I decided to fix up and was working on for the past month…well up until the interruptions; now might be a good time to try to finish fixing and enhancing it. Though I probably will be unable to do so with my magecraft screwed up as it is.

Discovering that I was able to reinforce the parts within the machine and project new ones just fine was admittedly quite a surprise, but it meant that I was not as helpless as I thought I was. After tinkering with it for a short while I heard a car horn coming from outside, it turned out that it had been nearly two hours since I started working on the radio. The ride to JUDA was uneventful, as the limo was empty save the driver, who was completely silent during the ride and refused to even acknowledge any attempt at conversation, and myself.

Arriving at the headquarters I was immediately escorted by the same driver to a part of the complex I had never seen before. It turned out that the inside of one of the gargantuan silos was completely devoted to being a battlefield. I spotted a large box with windows attached to a wall with a walkway leading down from it; it was probably an area devoted to observing the combat that went on in this room.

And strutting down said walkway was the president.

"Welcome Shirou, to the JUDA combat testing area. This is where we will test your combat ability in the machina. You will be fighting multiple Copy squadrons lead by our very own Captain Igarashi." Ishigami gave me a welcoming smile after appearing from one of the many doors dotting the walls, he gestured towards the far side of the room where a large lift was bringing multiple vaguely human shaped machines. They were rather thin with bulbous rounded arms and stocky legs that resembled VARDANT's own, only shorter, from head to foot they were probably about half of my machina's size. The robots were armed with a mix of what looked like machineguns and oddly shaped combat knives.

The bear-like man standing in front, wearing an outfit with a cyclopean visor, glared at me. He nodded at the president and proceeded to climb into his own robot. I made sure to memorize the location of the cockpit so I could avoid killing the personnel within.

"It seems like he is ready to go, once you call upon your machina we will be ready to begin." The president started to walk towards the observations room. "Oh, I almost forgot. Shirou, I had Mister Endou install a radio communications device in Vardant's cockpit, it should allow us to get in contact with you when you are piloting it. We haven't figured out how to put in video yet so at the moment it is limited to being sound only. Now with that out of the way, I wish you luck." He opened the door to the room and entered its confines with a wave.

That was admittedly quite convenient, but it felt odd to have them mess with what had very quickly become like a doll body for my mind to inhabit and live within. It was like if someone had decided to install a zipper in my appendix, quite an uncomfortable thought.

Surprising me, Ishigami quickly stuck his head back out of the room. "Also…please refrain from killing anyone, it is hard to find good employees these days." His part said the president shut the door again.

A loud voice came shouting over from the direction of the Copies. "Hurry up already will ya? I don't have all day!" It seemed like Captain Igarashi was getting impatient, better not keep him waiting any longer.

"Come to me, Vardant!"

**-VARDANT-**

From the relative safety of the observation room the president and a certain family-obsessed scientist watched the proceedings, both were seated in front a large window that allowed sight of the entire battlefield below. After watching the machina appear with a loud crash of metal-on-metal Takuto let out an odd questioning grunt, his lips quirking slightly downward.

"Well, that is odd."

Turning to Takuto Endou, Ishigami saw that he was, at that moment, inspecting myriads of charts and monitors that showed the status of VARDANT and its factor. The scientist's fingers were flying about the keyboard inputting in commands and toggling displays.

"What may I ask is odd?" Ishigami asked once he spotted an interval in the busy man's work.

Turning in his chair to face his president, the scientist answered the question. "Initially when I had scanned the Vardant's electronic brain I had noticed that there was quite a bit of activity there, which was an anomaly as the Deceive, even though it is dormant, is always nearly flat-lining in that. I had originally assumed that Vardant's entry to its former…resting place had damaged its AI, causing the oddity in electronic pulses." Takuto paused as if he needed time to gather his wits.

"I am sensing a 'but' here." Ishigami replied, addressing the pause in the explanation.

"But the moment Shirou called Vardant to him, the machinery onboard recorded a steep drop in its mental workload. The summoning in itself makes that quite odd, as the machina being called by its factor needs to register in its databanks the current location of the factor to use it as an anchor warp to. Admittedly that is only a theory at this point, but one would expect the effort of such a thing would cause its processes to rise. Add that to the fact that being in a combat ready mode takes up a lot of its power, so the drop is unexplainable." Takuto massaged his temples; he could feel the headache coming on. "So it is quite possible that Vardant is devoting the extra brainpower to something else, something big, but what exactly…and why? This is going against everything about these machines we have learned so far. First the right eye refuses to heal and now this, I am starting to wonder if I lack the imagination necessary to understand all this."

All Ishigami could do is pat the visibly distressed man on the shoulder.

**-VARDANT-**

VARDANT's bell-like cry rung throughout the arena, clear and loud it challenged all. Lowering its arm so Shirou could alight upon it, the machina then lifted him towards its chest, the cockpit jutting out at a wordless command. The machina was ready for combat, its demonic visage seemingly grinning with the shadow cast upon it.

Climbing into the cockpit Shirou could feel his senses and circuits linking with those of VARDANT, even the blind spot in his right eye. He could see the Copies spreading out into a formation of some sort, unaware of how useless it would be. Shirou could feel a bloodlust foreign to him occlude his senses, he was able to resist most of it but the magus still felt an unexpected cold need for battle.

VARDANT opened up and spread out all of its variable binders, fully extending beyond the robot's body. The machina proceeded to flap them once, like a pair of giant wings, sending the swords within flying and scattering them about the battlefield, leaving them sticking out of the metal floor like oversized grave markers. Leaving the binders open, Shirou grabbed the closest two and stood in a dual wielding stance, with both swords held out at his sides, welcoming his opponents to make the first charge.

Shirou heard the captain let out a derogatory laugh, some of his men following suit. He couldn't see their faces, but they were probable looking upon him contemptuously. "What are you doing throwing your weapons away like that, are you saying that you only need the two to fight us? You think you, who has zero training to fight with that machine and simply found it by dumb luck, can beat us, who have trained for this most of our careers? How arrogant can you be?"

Arrogance had nothing to do with this, that Shirou knew with certainty.

"Nope, this is simply how I learned to fight, it is my style if you will. Though I am used to swords much shorter than these, I suppose that I will have to make do." Shirou's response both shocked and confused those that heard; where exactly did he gain prior experience with weapons? Normally it could be excused as simple training, like kendo, but the way he phrased it along with his 'style' being none that would be taught dismissed that option out of hand.

What modern style would use countless swords scattered about carelessly as a way of combat?

One of the Copies charged, its pilot assuming wrongly that the opponent was bluffing, therefore inexperienced and would make an easy target. Before Igarashi could retort, VARDANT abruptly vanished from his sight. The only warning his wingman got was a clang of metal meeting metal before his machine was cleanly bisected at the waist.

"One down and eleven to go, so…who's next?" A voice cheerfully emitted from the demonic-looking machina, giving off quite the dissonant vibe. VARDANT adjusted its footing so that it was facing Captain Igarashi once again, as if issuing a challenge to the leader himself. The captain was faced with the same pose as before, but this time he was aware of the fact that it wasn't arrogance but instead confidence that lay within that stance.

"Surround him and keep him pinned down, he's relying on the machina's mobility. If we cut that off he's good as finished. His machina may be able to regenerate, but if we hit its vitals that won't matter!" Barking out the order Igarashi and his men began to circle VARDANT, to which the machina didn't seem to respond. Once the Copies surrounded the giant machine, they opened fire at an unheard command; the smoke and dust kicked up by the bullets quickly hid the machina from view.

The Copies stopped firing and waited for the smoke to clear, fully expecting their quarry to be inoperable. Suddenly a sword came flying out of the smoke and pierced the torso of Igarashi's robot, pinning it to the wall. A second sword came flying soon after and another Copy suffered a similar fate. VARDANT itself came dashing out faster than a fifty-ton robot had any right to and grabbed the head of one mechanical soldier and smashed it to the floor, crushing it into smithereens. Turning around to face the nearest enemy VARDANT pulled the nearest sword free and relieved his opponent of its right arm along with the gun in its grasp.

Helplessly Igarashi was forced to watch as his men were being decimated right in front of him. Beheaded, limbs severed, bodies crushed, all this carnage committed with an unearthly ease. The machina was practically weaving through the bullets fired at it, and then taking its targets at close range. If he lost a sword, be it by using it as a projectile or it being shot out of his hand, he merely picked up another from the ones scattered about. A nigh endless arsenal of blades, hacking and slashing apart its enemies, that was what they were facing. Any of the anti-tank rounds that hit it either bounced off or the damage done was too little to overcome the regeneration rate.

There was no denying it. A demon, he was a true demon.

"That makes eleven, one to go!" The voice from within the machine didn't even sound fatigued.

The lone soldier left was faced with the monster alone, he stepped back reflexively once VARDANT turned to face him. With false bravado the soldier charged, extending the knife built into the end of the round arm. The end result was predictably in the machina's favor; the legs of the Copy were quickly sliced off. The torso seemingly achieving some hang time before falling harmlessly to the floor, the pilot within futilely yelling out a wide variety of curses at VARDANT.

Shinobu Igarashi realized in that moment that they never stood a ghost of a chance.

**-VARDANT-**

The sound of an intercom system suddenly buzzing within VARDANT's cockpit nearly caused me to jump, the president's cheerful voice was soon resonating in my eardrums. "Good going Shirou, you took them all down, without killing even one man I may add, in approximately four minutes. Absolutely astounding for your first time I must admit, may I ask where you learned to fight like that?"

I couldn't just tell him that I was taught by King Arthur, who is a girl, brought from the past by an overgrown cup filled to the brim with evil…and that I copied some of the style from a nameless hero from the same source. So I decided to go with half-truths, they are easier to maintain than full-blown lies after all.

"A foreign friend of my father's trained me in the basics, the rest was…self-taught."'

Ishigami seemed to think about what I had said for a moment, and then his voice came back over the radio. "Very well, let us leave it at that for now. You did good Mister Emiya, we now have the basic specs for your VARDANT and can plan appropriately now. I think we are all tired and deserve some R so all employees involved in this exercise have the rest of the day off." I could literally hear his grin through the transmission. "See what a nice boss I am?"

I could hear the sounds of various cheers and moans coming from the Copies, showing that they had enough energy to be either happy at getting the day off, or embarrassed at Ishigami's antics. Unsurprisingly the number of groans was greater than that of the cheers. I even heard one saying that he wasn't getting paid enough for this, clichéd as it was.

Dismounting VARDANT I landed in the metal floor with a clang, looking up at my machina I realized that I had a real sword in my grasp…at the probable cost of all my fakes. But my hands have finally held something, something that I can use to save others. I suddenly felt an inexplicable dizziness come over me, but managed to shake it off.

Wondering why I received this power is not productive, so I will just have to accept it as it is.

"Heeeeeeey!" I was suddenly assaulted by a boisterous voice from my left. Turning towards it I was faced with a grinning Captain Igarashi. "You're coming with me, we're going drinking tonight." That honestly shocked me; I thought he hated my guts, as evidenced by his attitude prior to this.

He seemed to notice my hesitation and slapped me on the back, hard. "I do not believe that I have properly introduced myself, I am Captain Shinobu Igarashi, twenty-seven years old. I like guns, the bigger the better, and my favorite food is curry."

"Why so friendly all of a sudden?" I had to ask. Why was he telling me all this?

He seemed to ponder that for a bit before hitting me on the back again, thankfully I saw it coming so I managed to reinforce my spine before the blow hit. It still hurt. "Haven't you heard? Defeat equals friendship; it was inevitable for it to end up like this." He nodded at his own supposed wisdom. "It is customary for employees of relatively close ages to go out and drink after a hard day at work anyway. I know a good bar in the city, so lets get going."

"It is still in the afternoon, isn't it a bit early for drinking?" In addition to that I had just arrived here, and I wanted to ask the president where he got my phone number.

He merely waved off my complaints, proceeded to grab my arm, and started to drag me out one of the doors. "There is no better time to start than the present. I believe this would be called male bonding time. We get drunk, hit on some women, and have a good time!"

And thus began my odd friendship with the man known as Captain Shinobu Igarashi.

**-VARDANT-**

Walking home from the bar was a rather tiring experience. Shinobu, as he insisted I call him, felt the need to show me _all_ of the good bars in the area…so we ended up bar hopping most of the evening. That was certainly a new experience for me.

The trouble came when we met an odd Russian man, Dmitri we later learned, standing alone on a street corner. What really bothered me about him was that his eyes were pure white, no iris or pupil, just sclera. Igarashi, due to not being completely sober, staggered into him accidentally shoving the Russian to the ground.

Let's just say the aftermath wasn't pretty, Shinobu ended up with more than a bruised pride. Though the Russian wasn't much better off admittedly, thankfully I was able to intervene and stop the fight before things escalated. Though it seemed that the two simply could not get along, though it probably was the alcohol in Igarashi's, and my, systems. After the man left, but not after giving us his name, Shinobu exclaimed that he needed to get drunk to forget about his frustrations.

He was already plenty drunk, and for that matter so was I. Yet he dragged me off into yet another establishment without preamble.

The evening passed quickly.

I got home later than I would have found ideal, past midnight actually, should my mind have been clear enough to care. I did notice that I am getting alcohol shoved down my throat too much lately. That cannot be good for my health, though the nanomachines within me seemed to be making themselves useful for once by getting rid of my deliriousness. Thanks to that I had enough of my wits about me to notice that cat was in my yard yet again before I went through the front door.

I was too tired to ponder why it was in my yard once again, or even care.

After entering the foyer I managed to peel my shoes off my feet in a timely manner. The radio parts were where I left them on the dining room table, but exhaustion deemed me unfit to continue working on them. When I got to my bedroom I had enough of my wits about me to change into my bedclothes, unlike yesterday. Flopping down on my back, the bed welcomed me in its embrace. With thoughts about mechanical devices and churning clockwork, sleep came upon me quickly. I managed one last coherent thought before unconsciousness.

I wondered if all my days at JUDA would be as chaotic as today was.

**-VARDANT-**

_Location: AVal0n_

_#### LL IS A DI$TAN__^ UT0PIA####_

The sun was shining brightly in my eyes, waking me up from my nap. I rolled over in an attempt to stay comfortable, but the sun certainly wouldn't take no for an answer. An inexplicable numbness in my left arm alerted me to the fact that I shouldn't just lie around.

I groggily stood up; surrounding me was a field of endless grass. So…where exactly was I? Last thing I remember is running from people accusing me of murder then falling to my death in a mountain cave…and being pierced by _something_. So, how am I still alive, _am_ I still alive for that matter? I looked around to see if there were any recognizable features in the area, and as I expected there were none.

"Welcome back, Shirou." A feminine voice, like that of a clear bell, sounded from behind me. Turning around to face the source I saw a beautiful girl, with hair the color of gold, standing there. She was welcoming me with a smile, the sun behind her casting an ethereal glow upon her body. Suddenly…I knew where I was.

I was home.

_[Break]_

It's Time for…

**THE TIGER DOJO**

The Tiger Dojo is a strange hint corner.

If you would like to beat the game by yourself,

Or if you would like to keep the characters' images, please be warned.

Shizuna: Greetings from the future, my name is Shizuna Endou. I have come to inform you that the Tiger Dojo is still undergoing repairs and is obviously unavailable at the moment. What, you expected something else? Well too bad.

VARDANT: Kyuuuun-~!

*Crashing noises*

Ilya: Go away already!

Taiga: What are you planning on doing with those tentacles? Hey! Put me down this instant! Take the buruma girl instead; her moe power is exponentially greater than mine! Ouch! Things aren't supposed to go in there!

Shizuna: Yup, unavailable. So go away, you are wasting my time.

_[End]_

**Author's Note: Well here is the next chapter, took me a while to get it out. Having read the new translated Linebarrel chapter a lot of my assumptions were proven correct and including a certain Malty Blood character was absolutely necessary.** **I only got one review for the last chapter, I am disappoint. I need to know how I am doing so I can fix things that are wrong. Also I did mean the thing I put at the end with Avalon, it is important.**

**The dumb fanfiction upload format has been screwing up my story a bit, so there**** might be some things missing from this draft. Hopefully not, but you never know.**_  
><em>


	5. Chapter 4: A God's Tragic Spring Dream

_**Chapter 4: A god's tragic spring dream**_

_Location: Unknown_

It hurts.

The wiggling, crawling, gnawing, beneath my skin it hurts. In my lungs, in my heart, in my very soul it hurts. It hurts.

It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts

Here…trapped eternally with him within this metal coffin, unable to die…yet unable to truly live. Why am I tortured like this? What did I ever do to deserve this…am I that filthy a person that I need to be punished like this? But…why didn't they come save me? Yes, they didn't come to save me so it is their fault…it _must _be their fault; they are the ones to blame or my suffering. Oh my sister, my family, my jealousy, my envy. Oh my senpai, my love, my light, my hate, my everything…

I am coming.

**-VARDANT-**

_April 17th, 2012_

Spring has come to Tokyo once again.

The past two-and-a-half years flew by all to fast. It looked like I hadn't appeared to age at all in the that time, the opposite even seemed almost true, as my skin color had completely restored itself from the charred brown that it once was. Thankfully I was able to pass it off as a tan simply going away, rather than something magical in origin. On that note I had managed to keep my magical abilities a secret from the prying eyes of Ishigami, which was much harder than I had initially thought. Despite my successes little progress has been made in my search for Sakura despite the new resources I had at my disposal, it seemed more likely that…

I can't just give upon her, I owe her enough to keep searching for her until I receive definite proof one way or the other.

Tohsaka had taken to staying in London for longer intervals of time, her visits getting shorter and less frequent as time went on. I understood that she was busy with things of great importance, but it still left me with the lonely feeling that she was moving on. Even when she did find time to visit her mind seemed constantly elsewhere, it made me wonder if she had finally found a boyfriend.

Over the past year or so I managed to restore enough of my magecraft ability to project mundane implements and some basic, unnamed weapons…though I no longer could trace my stored 'database' for the blades. Due to this handicap I was limited to practicing my skills through Structural Analysis and machine repair, and as a result my skills in that field soared exponentially. After this is all over I might set up shop as a mechanic, should I decide to settle down and not wander the world looking for people to save. If I wasn't so obsessed with swords, I might find a true passion in mechanical and electronic things. I even managed to get the Internet running on an old computer I salvaged, it was really useful for searching for locations where I thought Sakura might possibly be.

Hooray for Google Maps.

As for the cat that was stalking my yard, well…it one day decided to come stay with me. I learned the cat's name, Len, and her history from a neighborhood housewife. It turns out that her old owners, Shiki Tohno and his wife Hisui, used to live in this house. Unfortunately the husband died quite young due to heart troubles, with his wife following soon after. Though their lives were short it seemed to the neighbors that they were a happy, friendly couple…but apparently there always was this great weight upon their shoulders. After the death of her keepers it seemed that Len was left to fend for herself, as the Tohnos' only immediate family left, their sisters, were apparently dead too. So after some convincing (more like bribing) I managed to get her to stay with me, I couldn't just let her fend for herself in good conscience. She made a good companion to talk to when I got lonely. After all, I never really got used to living alone after Saber's death and Sakura's disappearance. Taiga couldn't visit me this far away from Fuyuki that left me without my usual companions, so the cat was welcome.

Her taste (read unholy lust) for strawberry cake was worrying though, cats really shouldn't eat that stuff.

Then there was that magus woman I encountered all those months ago, simply put I haven't seen hide nor hair of the lady since then. I had initially expected for her to contact someone within the magus association about me, but I guess that she either did not feel the need to or didn't get anything of importance out of my head before VARDANT pushed her out. In some ways I am glad that she has left me alone, but that she was kicked out should have alerted her to the fact that I am not a normal person. That I wasn't contacted or confronted worries me.

The dreams, rather information dump, sent by VARDANT unsurprisingly persisted; I would receive one about once a month regularly. The visions were all just as morbid as the first; I even saw crowds of people jump off buildings and cliffs in a mass suicide in one. All I really knew was that this all had to do with something at an undisclosed point in the future. I ended up seeing an old discarded calendar with the year 2048 on it discarded in a dumpster…so I knew it was sometime ahead of that point. How the machina sent me things only someone with the fifth should know stumped me.

On a cheerier note, I also received periodical visits from Takuto Endou and his family to my abode. That is including his young twin children, Shizuna and Izuna. The only way I had to tell them apart was their attitudes; Izuna was quiet and thoughtful while his sibling was loud and boisterous. The boy, Izuna, seemed to look up to me as some sort of uncle; while the girl, Shizuna, often kicked me in the crotch if given the chance, such as when I ever kneeled down at her level to try and speak with her...she was quite the lively one. Izuna actually took to the cat pretty well while Shizuna and Len just couldn't get along. I often saw them fighting in some form of a comical scene, wrestling on the floor was a common sight within the house when she visited. It was dangerous for me though, if I so much as laughed their rage would be turned towards me.

Little girl scratches hurt surprisingly more than I thought they would.

As for their parents, Takuto was the same as ever. With his obsessively cheerful personality that belied the vast intelligence hidden beneath, he made an odd Division Manager of the tech group. He even joined Shinobu and I on our weekly bar outings occasionally, when Wako allowed him that is. His wife seemed to be the only thing keeping him in line, all it took to bring him back from one of his 'aren't my family adorable' rants was a simple pat on the head. She seemed averse to fighting of any kind despite being one of the head scientists working on the machinae, yet she did understand that things couldn't always be solved peacefully.

Though I did see her explode with fury when Takuto suggested using their twin children in an experiment with DECEIVE. Thankfully her anger was diffused quickly when he mentioned that they weren't even planning on fully activating the machina and that all the twins had to do was sit in the cockpit and the scientists would check if DECEIVE registered that there were two people inside. She still had her misgivings about it for sure, but Wako eventually gave in to her children's begging.

Speaking of which that test is happening later today, and my presence is all but demanded. Somehow the president got blackmail material on me, the contents of which I do not dare put down on these pages. Who knows what-

The ringing of the telephone interrupted Shirou's writings; he slammed his pen down on the table and rubbed his head in irritation.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Hold your horses already."

Getting up to answer the summons, Shirou left the room. Sitting upon the table recently vacated by the magus was a hard-covered book. The title, scribbled upon the cover carelessly, was the only defining feature as the rest of it was just a plain brown.

**[End prologue, first Arc begin]**

**Fate / Machina VARDANT**

"_The Fate of the False Blacksmith"_

**-VARDANT-**

The phone call turned out to be Takuto telling that the experiment would begin shortly and that I should get there posthaste. He had sent one of the members of the Technological Development Division to pick my up as the prez had left on a week-long trip for government related business leaving Takuto in charge.

At times I wondered which was worse to have commanding a large corporation with giant robots under its jurisdiction, a prankster or a family maniac.

I should really look into getting myself a car or something, having to be picked up every time I had to get to JUDA in a hurry was a pain. Even from the window of the vehicle I was in I could spot the ongoing construction of the massive JUDA complex. It seemed that I had vastly underestimated the final size of the artificial island. Upon arriving to the JUDA headquarters I was greeted by the little hellion named Shizuna in the only way she knew how.

Namely…headbutting me in the stomach.

"What took you so long, can't you at least be on time for our big day? We finally get to look at daddy's Deceive and you are late!" Shizuna stood there with her fists on her small hips, the very picture of aggravation.

"C-can't you be a little nicer to uncle Shirou?" On the other hand, in contrast to his sister Izuna was shyly hanging off his mother's lab coat. "Every time you see him you end up hitting him." His shy innocence was refreshing compared to his sister's brashness; he was also quite mature for a child of almost eight years.

The hellion put her fist on her hip while using the other hand to point at her brother. "You are too easy on him, he is a friend of daddy's therefore he must be just as useless!" I could see Takuto standing nearby, literally deflate at that scathing comment from his daughter.

Wako patted his back in consolation, she turned to Shizuna with a placating smile, "Well, why don't we get moving to the underground plant where the test is taking place, you can nag Shirou all you want afterward, alright?" It may have soothed Shizuna's nerves, but it was far from soothing mine. They were already heading towards the elevator leading down to the plant, so I swallowed the objections to my treatment and followed. Upon entering I was shoved to the corner by the others making my rather cramped, I am sure that the elevator was not made to carry more than three people at a time given its size.

I was waiting eagerly for the floor number to read out 'B 38', the beep indicating that our destination was reached was a godsend.

Upon entering the underground plant I noticed that my VARDANT was moved back to one of the walls whilst DECEIVE was elevated above the central platform with countless wires and cables attaching to it. For the first time I noticed that the large barrels on the side were open and contained some type of cable system, their function escaped me. I also was able to see what passed for legs on the machina, it seemed that it only had one single limb that looked like a combination of VARDANT's tail stabilizer and a tripod leg. The cockpit in its chest was open showing that the scientists somehow installed a second seat, identical to the first, behind the original one.

The twins both dashed out of the elevator towards DECEIVE excitedly chattering all the way, it was quite refreshing to see their childish enthusiasm. Unsurprisingly Takuto chased after them in equal enthusiasm, with his wife following at a more sedate pace. When I too arrived at the 'foot' of DECEIVE with the rest of the family I saw that the twins were being prepared for the test by putting on outfits that were vaguely reminiscent of modern space suits.

My curiosity got the best of me and I just had to ask. So I turned to Wako, As Takuto was engrossed with making sure that his children were prepared. "So, what exactly is this test for? I couldn't get any information out of Ishigami." I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment; I may be getting more skilled in things like these, but this level of science is beyond me.

Wako turned to me with a serene smile, and seemed happy to explain. "We wish to know more on how machinae interact with their factors, and are running a test to see if they will interact with more than one factor at a time. We are using Deceive simply because a factor-less machina will still interact with those who aren't its factors, we believe it does that so it can see if someone meets the criteria to become a factor…but that is beside the point. This is all part of a fundamental investigation into what factors are and exactly and how they differ from normal people…other than the obvious, we know too little about them at this point in time." After saying her part and nodding at me she went off to join her husband in setting things up.

With little to do but wait I found a spot near VARDANT to sit down, for whatever reason I felt more energized when I got closer to the robot. While waiting I was consumed by idle thoughts. I pulled at my collar; the black suit that was the company uniform was as tight as ever. I was interrupted from my musing by the sound of machinery starting up, it seems that they are ready to begin now. I saw a lift bringing the twins up to the cockpit eye; Shizuna was bouncing on the balls of her feel while her brother was the very picture of calm. Wako helped both of them to board; making sure they were both secure in their respective seats before giving them a wave and making her way back down. Upon getting off the lift she went to one of the consoles and started typing at a speed that I could never hope to match.

"Preparing Deceive for remote activation, current nanomachine activity levels at minimal, outer casing integrity secure." I stopped listening to Takuto ramble off all kinds of phrases that meant nothing to me, in a single breath no less, only tuning back in when he came to the end. "Machina startup in five, four, three, two…" He held up a finger in time to each number of the countdown.

"…one, start!" Upon Takuto reaching one I saw the machina's eyes light up and its head raise slightly. I heard a hum as DECEIVE started up, but with little other noise indicating that it was awake. I had learned from Ishigami that the 'cries' I heard from my machina aren't really noises at all, but are the confirmation signals telling me that a command has been received sent directly to my brain and registering itself as a sound. So it was no wonder that, to me, DECEIVE was absolutely silent.

While the scientists were still engrossed in their typing, charts, and graphs I became aware that something was off. Upon looking at the face of the machina I noticed that it looked like it was crying, for there was a dark liquid slowly pouring out of its eyes down its long chin. What bothered me the most was that I recognized that liquid from somewhere; it was the filth from the Holy Grail! The dirty feeling I got from just looking at it was unmistakable, what the hell is it doing here! Just as I was about to yell at everyone to get away from the machina a siren went off, the lackeys were all sent into a flurry.

Takuto began shouting his disbelief at what was happening.

"Deceive is somehow receiving and accepting a foreign transmission, the source seems to be another machina! The machinae aren't built to send and receive signals like this, this should be impossible!" At that moment the machina started to pull insistently at the many cables attached to it. "Deceive's AI is going haywire, a virus has infiltrated it and is making it move against its will!"

With a loud snap DECEIVE pulled itself off the cables, causing electricity to spark everywhere. While I couldn't hear the twins' panicked cries from within the machine, I could sure feel them. Wako also was unable to hold in her desperation and I heard her cry out for her children. Takuto on the other hand was working intently on fixing whatever was wrong with the machina, dashing to whatever console needed his attention at the moment.

I had to hand it to the guy; even in a panic Takuto was still on top of things, like I expected anything else from him.

A lackey who I recognized as Takuto's apprentice noticed that something else was going on with the mecha. "The nerve cracks, they are unraveling! Everyone get down!" That said everyone started taking for cover, turning towards the machine I spotted the wires on DECEIVE's sides were indeed taking to the air. They seemed to be tying themselves in knots, writhing around uncontrollably and smashing into anything they came in contact with. Debris was falling everywhere causing many would-be escape routes to be blocked off.

I spotted some unlucky scientists caught under some of the rubble knocked over by the machina. I couldn't just leave them there to die, so I reinforced my body and dashed toward them, hoping that I could make it in time. I could feel the metal exoskeleton forming on my extremities, but at that moment my only focus was saving those who needed saving. I wasn't watching out for myself in that moment, and I sure would come to regret it.

The last thing I saw before unconsciousness was one of the nerve cracks coming directly for me, smashing me into the floor like an insect.

**-VARDANT-**

Sitting atop a skyscraper an exotic woman watched the chaos below with a critical eye, the rampage of the machina filling her with both hatred and glee. She watched it eagerly as it burst out of the false island and took to the skies, tentacles writhing in agony. She quickly calculated the possible outcomes of this disaster. This is what she had waiting for, the symbol of what had led…no, will lead…humanity to ruin.

What she had come to destroy, along with the humans that created it.

Humans are destined for death; that was proven when they reached the inevitable end of their own self-induced evolution. After all, suicide was all that was left when they reached the pinnacle of what they could become. Even the magi were not immune; lacking imagination they had utterly ceased their eternal pursuit of Akasha. Humanity as a whole had finally achieved their much sought after immortality, which ironically was what had condemned them to death. When you reach the top, there is nowhere to go but down.

She watched and she waited, this is only the beginning of the end.

**-VARDANT-**

Am I dead?

A sudden stabbing pain in the back of my neck was the first sign that I was still alive after being squished like nothing more than a bug; all I was aware of was that I was lying on my stomach on a cold metal floor. I shook my head in an attempt to alleviate that problem; but upon regaining more of my senses I noticed something off.

I can't feel my legs.

I tried looking down to get a better grasp of the problem but I spotted something that shook me to the core. The reason that I couldn't feel anything down there was because there wasn't anything there in the first place, for sitting right beside my face was a pair of battered legs.

_My_ legs.

I noticed the bloodstained white bone of my spine sticking out through the frayed edge of what was formerly my suit pants. Looking down at myself I saw the other half of that very vertebrae sticking out of my own tattered body. I was cut in half, so simply has my life ended. But…if I was cut in half how am I still so lucid? Blood loss would have made sure I was still out of it, if it hadn't killed me by now anyway. This is certainly an anomaly as I lack the very thing that had once kept me alive in situations like these years ago: Avalon. But might as well accept this blessing, it allows me to do something with what might very well be my last moments.

Attempting to move what remained of my body led me to discover that there was a cable attached to the back of my neck, following it I saw that led to VARDANT who stood by the far wall. Ah…it's the machina again; he must have forced me back into the realm of the conscious. With a calmer eye I looked down at my severed edge and could see metallic bits at the edges of the wound showing that my nanomachines were attempting, but failing, to regenerate the damage. It also became apparent that they were also preventing me from bleeding out immediately in addition to keeping my entrails in place. That last one was a godsend, rescuing people would be tough with your intestines dangling out after all.

Just lying here and thinking of why this is won't help anyone; despite this setback I am still the only one here who can take care of this mess. Even though my death is inevitable at this point I still have people to save.

I am a superhero, its what I do.

Ignoring the pain, I shoved my back against a still standing railing and proceeded to scout the area for anyone still alive. It looked like most of the people still living had already made it out of ground zero, leaving just the corpses behind. Hearing a large bang halted my search, it seemed that one of the machines had a small delayed explosion. Maybe some fire got to it or something…but that was beside the point.

The reason that it caught my attention was what it sent my way; for flying through the air, landing at my immediate left with a wet sounding splat, was a disembodied head. It seemed that the head was ripped from the body by something tossed around in the blast as I could see muscle fibers, strips of torn skin, the esophagus, some of the spine, and other fleshy bits dangling out on the floor beneath, staining it with blood and other fluids.

From this angle I couldn't see the identity of the person this head once belonged too. I simply couldn't resist the temptation so I reached out and turned it toward me.

I truly wish I hadn't.

Shaded by a curtain of dirty black hair was the face of the woman once known as Wako Endou, forever stuck in an expression of utter shock and despair. With blood trickling out of her open mouth, the sight chilled my blood far more than finding myself in pieces. But even with that I managed to get out a little prayer.

_Rest in peace, I'll save your children. I promise_. I was unable to speak properly for all the blood coming up my throat, so I had to make do with a silent oath.

I just couldn't let this go on; after all, the twins are in grave danger too. Despite my earlier statement, who knows if they are even still alive at this point? The machina cannot actively seek to kill them; that I know, as it goes against their protocols. But what the filth is doing in that machine can't be good. I looked up, through the destroyed ceiling I could still see DECEIVE writhing about on the surface above. I let out a relieved sigh; I hadn't been knocked out too long. I could still stop it and save as many lives as possible.

I had a promise to keep.

Hearing the loud clang of metal on metal I turned around and saw that VARDANT had moved behind me with its arm reaching and ready to help me mount. The machina was unsurprisingly left undamaged by the while ordeal and was ready for combat. Boarding the robot was initially difficult without legs, but the machine actually sent out some more of its cables from the cockpit to assist me. Wrapping around my lower torso and supporting my upper back, the wires kept me upright in the pilot seat…I am not sure that I could have managed otherwise.

I could feel my consciousness spread throughout VARDANT, distancing the aches and pains of my human body from my mind. Looking up through my machina's single eye I saw that the DECEIVE noticed my presence, with tears of corruption still falling from its eyes it stared into the depths of my very soul. I could sense its despair at being eaten from the inside out by the filth.

It seemed that the machina itself needed saving too.

I almost didn't notice when it sent its twelve nerve cracks out to impale me, dashing to the left and jumping out of the ruined plant I was able to escape them. I landed on the main service road on the island, cracking the surface of the pavement upon impact. Reaching behind me to the binders that I knew were there I pulled out two of the swords stashed there and took the dual-wielding stance that was so familiar to me. When DECEIVE sent the cracks at me again I managed to deflect them all and even chop one off, leaving it wriggling on the ground. Upon losing one of its cables the corrupted robot quickly gained altitude on me, leaving itself completely out of my range.

Or so it thought.

Impaling one of the swords in the road beneath me I focused all my attention on the other, analyzing its structure and composition…and altering it. Visible magic circuits started to trace down VARDANT's left arm, their golden light sparking as it created an ethereal glow. With the last dregs of prana within my dying body I made what would apparently be my last weapon.

"Trace on, structural analysis complete. Commencing alteration."

Even with my eyes closed I could feel the surface of the blade started to bubble and twist, bending in ways that did not coincide with standard Euclidean geometry. The sharp edge vanished while the dark blue hilt spread like a liquid to cover the whole shaft, the pole curved as a wire attached the two ends together.

What I ended up with was a gigantic yet crude bow, longer than VARDANT was tall. The only hints that it was once a sword had vanished leaving me with the new weapon, I gripped it tightly while reaching for the sword that I had placed in the ground. The only alterations I made to it were to make it able to be fired from the bow; the simple operation took almost no time at all.

I took a wide firing stance, notching the makeshift arrow and pulling back on the string as far as possible, I took aim with VARDANT's good eye at the machina that was continuing to retreat beyond the clouds. After making sure it was in my sights I let the string go, the force of the arrow launching sent a shockwave that knocked up dust and small debris around my feet. The arrow faithfully sped its way to the target piercing its way through the left side of the main barrel that contained DECEIVE's nerve cracks, and continued sailing onward causing the clouds to shift around its path.

The imbalance caused by the large hole in its side caused the DECEIVE to start fall back to earth at a blistering pace; the sheer speed it was descending at was worrying me. The twins might not survive an impact at that altitude; I had thought that if I aimed away from the core systems it might descend slower than it was now. Without a thought to my own safety I stashed the bow in the binders and dashed up the nearby wall of the big silo containing the machina JUDA, not caring that I was leaving imprints where VARDANT's legs impacted against the side. Upon reaching the top I jumped off toward DECEIVE in an attempt to catch it…unfortunately I succeeded.

During my ascending arc I managed to clutch its large 'leg' with one arm and was miraculously able to use my remaining arm and body in gripping the side of the wall of the silo.

"Gah, stay…together!"

I could hear the screech of metal grinding against metal ringing in my ears, the friction of scraping down the vertical plane slowed down our descent. When I touched the ground I realized my mistake, the nerve crack that I cut off earlier had regenerated and jammed itself in my side. The pain of it was only a small annoyance, like a sting, so I was about to reach down to pull the wire out when it happened.

The smell of the air turned sweet like honey; the cloying scent of rotten meat assaulted my senses.

Looking down at the machina's feet I discovered that the island had been replaced with a vast sea of worms, their disturbingly phallic shape elicited some form of primal fear within me. I panicked; rapidly turning around I saw that the rest of the scenery had turned into a twisted version of what it used to be. The sky had turned a sickly purple with a black sun hanging there in the sky while the buildings and other parts of the scenery had turned into horrible shifting fleshy things, the worms were not to be forgotten though. Some of their number started to slither up VARDANT's legs to cover the machine in its entirety while others managed to burrow through the metal armor, no matter how much I struggled I couldn't shake them off.

_{I am coming_._}_

I could feel it, all of the worms burrowing beneath my skin. Gnawing at my wounds, crushing my spine, drinking my marrow, and raping my every orifice.

The pain was simply unimaginable.

It was nothing like I had ever felt before, being cut in half _paled_ in comparison to this. There was no denying it, the pain going to drive me insane. It hurt; I'll do anything, just…

"Make it stop."

_Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop Make it stop MaKe It sTOp mAkE IT StoP MAKe iT sTop maKE It STop mAkE It StOp MAkE iT StOP maKe It sTop MaKE IT StOP mAKe iT STop!_

Silence.

I heard something snap within me, suddenly my sanity returned like a flood.

Wait, this can't be. This happening is impossible. A thing like this would take a Reality Marble for it to come into being, and thanks to having one of my own I am easily able to identify when one is cast. Despite my every sense telling me otherwise, this pollution had to be nothing but an illusion. Nerve Crack, suddenly the name made sense to me. DECEIVE hacked into my nerves and sent me images of some of my worst fears; I suspected that the corruption had to do with that part.

Grasping at the intruding appendage I managed to yank it out with a large scraping noise. The moment I did so the distorted world vanished leaving DECEIVE, who seemed to have used the time I was trapped in the illusion to recover, within my vision. Certainly explains why it didn't use that time to finish me off for good. Before it could get over its apparent shock I tackled the opposing machina with all that I had left in me, ramming it to the ground.

"Sorry guys, I am going to have to get a little rough here."

Grasping its head within my hands I gave it a sudden twist, the crack indicating that I must have broken something was music to my ears. Taking four swords, two in each hand, I methodically impaled DECEIVE in four places on its main body. I made sure that it was pinned to the ground and that its nerve crack holders were jammed and thus unusable. I reached down to the large eye that I knew the cockpit lay behind and pulled. With a noise that was reminiscent of the tearing of wet paper the cockpit came free, I could see the twins wrapped up in the same kind of wires I was supported by. It looked like DECEIVE had protected them from the worst, even while rampaging out of control.

But for a machina to actively protect someone…it must mean that they have both become factors. Even though the cost was great, it seems that your experiment has unfortunately succeeded beyond your expectations Takuto. With great care, despite the size of VARDANT's fingers, I managed to extract them from their prison. Glancing up towards DECEIVE I noted that the tears of filth had stopped falling, it seems that he won't pose a problem any longer.

This tragic accident is finally over, fading like an ethereal spring dream.

I can die in peace.

**-VARDANT-**

_Location: Unknown_

Within a sanctum of corruption something was disturbed from its slumber, a black rotting eye slowly opened to take in the darkness around it.

"It seems like Sakura has moved without my permission, she has possibly given away its existence with this juvenile act." A gurgling voice addressed the darkness. "We may have to move the plan ahead of schedule, you might very well have work sooner than expected…Assassin."

The screeching of countless worms echoing off the walls of the cave formed a distorted symphony that would have driven a normal man insane…but the creatures that had taken up residence here were far from being human, not anymore. They had thrown away that luxury long ago. One to see his dream accomplished, the other-

"Yes master." A small form seemed to emerge from the cave wall, no taller than up to an average adult's knees it crawled upon the ground in a way that resembled nothing more than a large arachnid. The bone-white skull mask sitting its face, obscured by the hood the creature was wearing, seemed to jiggle with the laughter coming out of the spider-like being. "Kiki, kikikikikikikiki. I am an assassin, it is what I do."

-For his trade.

_[Break]_


	6. Chapter 5: A God's Immortality

Well, here we finally go...AFTER NEARLY HALF A YEAR. But first, two things. One: I was originally was going to edit the first part a little bit due to it being a product of my mind going on overdrive mixed with me being half-asleep when I wrote it...but I was advised to keep it intact. Two: I ended the chapter a bit earlier than I originally wanted to just to get it out. I also scrapped the planned Tiger Dojo for the same reason.

And again, I hope the formatting didn't get messed up in transition.

_**Chapter 5: A god's immortality**_  
><em>Aval0%T293A7%T645A45&amp;R89&amp;I64<em>

I spy with my little eye something green.

Grass.

I spy with my little eye something…more green.

More grass.

I spy with my little eye'm bored. There is nothing to see here but rolling green fields (how can fields roll if they aren't round?), stretching to the horizon (or stretch for that matter, words are weird). Adding that to the fact I couldn't move (or feel) even my eyes left me staring at the same section of grass-covered field for what seemed like days. Oddly enough I could see everything around me in a 360-degree panoramic view, it was like I had eyes set in a complete sphere surrounding me. That anomaly allowed me to see _even more_of the horizon despite me not being able to move, so why question good fortune?

You know, in fact I believe the grass has grown almost three centimeters since I started watching. I made up a song about that, grass growing, wanna hear it? Wait…I forgot that Shirou is alone in my head.

Darn.

The grass growing song makes me giggle. I'm sure if I had anyone else in my head they'd giggle too.

_Cut it!_ Cut the grass, chip-chop. I feel like _cutting, stabbing, cleaving_…yet I must _build, forge, create._Uncontrollable impulses sure make it difficult to think. I wonder if this is part of what Berserker felt so long ago, if so I feel for him.

Still, I feel funny; did the president get me drunk yet again? Last thing I remember is fighting a giant metal pickle barrel then _bam_, watching grass grow. I don't even remember what I did to get that metallic container of pickled produce so angry with me. Then again…maybe it was a dream inspired by that TV show I watched or something, everyone knows that pickle barrels don't fly.

Plus that thing had tentacles that tried to tentacle-rape me like a tentacle-monster in a bad tentacle-porn flick; pickle barrels most certainly don't have those either. I never really looked that closely at one though…so maybe they _do_have tentacles and are merely hiding them for when they try to take over the world! And by take over the world I mean assault defenseless schoolgirls.

I mean that _is_what tentacle monsters do, right?

The sound of footsteps interrupted any further intospuk…instaspe…intru…_thought_…words are weird. How dare footsteps interrupt me! If I could move I would kill _(cleave, stab, cut, eviscerate!)_you where you stand…err, sound. Wait, that is not very superhero-like…let me try again. Nope, redo failed…please try again later.

Damn automated services.

The crunching grass signifying another person's presence was drawing (an artist!) closer. My attention was taken up by a shock of familiar blond hair, followed by an even more familiar red. It happened to be the very same red that I see in the mirror every morning, how nice. A petite girl in a white dress was walking ahead of a larger red-haired man, holding hands the whole way. Even though I couldn't see their faces I could tell that they were smiling, laughing as if at some private joke shared only between lovers. It was surprising that despite my head feeling all swirly I recognized them immediately.

Hi Saber, hi Shirou!

Holding hands and strolling through the sunlight together, how nice it must feel to be so carefree. I am envious of them…us…umm, the me-who-is-not-me. And for that matter, why is me-who-is-not-me not me? I am I, and he is I, thus we are me. Anyway, the peaceful scene makes me feel…complete somehow.

…wait. _Waitwaitwaitwait!_

Something was wrong, terribly wrong. The pleasant fog blanketing my mind dissipated instantly along with any serenity I had felt. With the restoration of my mental faculties my vision was restored to normal, I felt the familiar weight of my body as gravity took hold of me soon after. The grass crunching as my feet softly alighted upon the ground indicated that I wasn't standing before; it left me wondering what kind of state I was in prior to this.

Turning to the figures of Saber and the other myself I saw that they had stopped strolling and were standing with their backs turned to me, shoulders shaking in silent laughter. I made to step towards them but some unknown instinct from deep within my mind warned me not to. Without any other warning the gorgeous world around me seemed to stretch and fall as if sucked into the drain of a bathtub.

What it left behind was the stuff of nightmares.

The ground was a veritable sea of blood; the stench of iron assaulted my nostrils making me cover them with my hand. In the distance giant human-shaped shadows danced in macabre synchronization, constantly circling the bloody horizon. Their jerky movements reminded me of nothing more than twisted marionettes, pulled along by unseen strings. Towering obelisks, crumbling pyramids, screaming sphinxes, elaborately carved pillars, and statues of long dead Egyptian pharaohs…these things and countless others jutted from the bloody ocean at sporadic angles, their position and forms shifting constantly like television static.

The sky had turned a sickly purple, with blood pouring down from the heavens (if you could still call them that) like rain. And instead of the white nimbus clouds that were once floating far above my head I was able to make out a number of shackled _things_. The only thing these forms had in common were the rusted chains that bound each and every one of them. The size, shape, texture, and even color of each creature was unique, each twisted in its own way. These featureless horrors lazily floated in the far off distance slumbering, unaware of the crazed world around them.

I got the feeling that if even one of those things woke up it would signal the end of the world.

Spotting sudden movement out of the corner of my eye brought my attention back to the two figures of Saber and the other myself that still stood there, ankle deep in the pool of blood. Despite my instincts screaming at me not to I made my way over to them, red liquid splashing around my ankles with every step. They seemed to react to my approach by stiffening suddenly, their backs ramrod straight. Turning to me in synchronization I saw that their faces were nothing but pitch-black shadows, I couldn't help but step back in revulsion. Instead of eyes they had identical twin pools of blood, overflowing down their faces and dripping onto the ground. Beneath that lied a large crescent gash stretching from ear-to-ear in mockery of a human mouth, the unholy grin unsurprisingly had the liquid leaking from it too.

"Trace, on." Though my first instinct was to reinforce my body and call upon one of the swords I could trace at the sight of such creatures, the lack of energy flooding my veins quickly alerted me to the unfortunate fact that I couldn't. All I could do was return their stare.

After staring at me for what seemed like an eternity, the figures faced each other and each put a hand to their mouth and laughed silently as if mocking me. Rather than turn back to me and attack the Saber figure jumped onto the other me and proceeded to rip open his abdomen with her teeth, splattering entrails and body fluids everywhere. The foul stench of ruptured intestines wafted towards me, making my stomach turn.

The other me immediately countered by shoving the Saber down to the ground by the shoulders and repaid the wound he received in kind. The moment the flesh touched his lips the wound in his belly was restored…almost. Instead the smooth and supple skin of the very stomach he ripped open and devoured was attached to the rest of the chiseled torso like some patchwork doll, the difference in body size made the figure have to hunch over.

Turning to the Saber figure I saw that an identical thing happened to her…it, just reversed. Without sparing a moment to pause the figures both went at the other's right hand and tore them off with a sickening crunch, showing the tendons and bones within. The same thing as last time happened, the wounds regenerated…but with the ingested parts instead of the original.

These events continued over and over and over again. Left ear, right forearm, throat, right thigh, left shoulder, right leg, chin, right shoulder, I'm sure it would have gone on longer had I not taken the opportunity to retreat rather than stare in morbid fascination. Because the moment I started to back away the splashing noise of the blood at my feet caused them to abruptly stop their bloody orgy and return their attention back to me.

On second thought, maybe I should have stuck with the staring. If I were to run…where exactly would I go? There is nothing here but blood and rubble! In addition to which the giant shadows in the distance have stopped their dancing and are taking an awful lot of interest in me…that surely can't be good for my continued existence.

My hesitation turned out to be my downfall, the creatures that used to have the forms of Saber and myself lunged at me and pinned my arms down to the wet ground. With their shadowed faces mocking me with a deranged smile the _things_ spoke for the first time, the raspy voices gurgling as blood dripped from their open maws.

"Why must the world end? Why must the act finish? Despair! Despair! Despair! Despair as the stage crumbles beneath your feet, hollow marionette!"

I would have pondered that cryptic phrase more if I was given the opportunity, however it was not to be. Immediately after they uttered that cryptic sentence the Saber figure grabbed my forehead and shoved my head into the hard ground that lay beneath the blood stunning me, probably giving me a concussion. Through all the stars and haze around my mind I could make out the two twisted figures prodding my sternum, with what they were just doing that couldn't be a good thing.

They plunged their fingers into my chest, the sudden spike of pain taking me out of my daze. I felt oddly detached from the rest of my body, despite the pain saying otherwise, as they were literally peeling the skin away from my ribcage with their claws. Such a sight where my bones were completely exposed to the air was hardly believable, despite all the wounds I had been inflicted with, left me feeling some distance from reality.

After that was done they grasped the bottom two ribs and bent them back with a snap, opening them like one would a clamshell. I was forced to watch as they pulled each individual rib apart from bottom to top in the same manner, cackling all the way. At that moment I felt that the pain was even worse than getting cut in half, if for nothing else than it was prolonged. Finishing with their morbid work they gestured for me to look inside my chest cavity, their shoulders shaking with silent laughter yet again. Unable to resist their summons I raised my head to look down into the hole that used to be my chest.

My head recoiled in shock, hitting the ground hard enough to make me see stars.

True, seeing your chest peeled open like an orange would cause anyone to be surprised…but what really shocked me though was what was within, or rather what wasn't. Instead of the pulsing organs I had expected there was…nothing. No, less than nothing…a void. I couldn't even see the outer walls where my flesh was supposed to be, all that lay within was a pitch black void.

It was too much for me to deal with. A twisted world filled with equally twisted things, doppelgangers of Saber and myself gorging on their own organs, a sea of blood, and my own emptiness. I could feel something tugging at the back of my mind; the world around me was growing fuzzier by the minute, the static quickly consuming my vision. Even without that feeling pulling me down I was sure I would have fainted soon anyway.

"This is the trut-_zzzzt_- of your existence." As my consciousness faded I could hear the twisted beings cackling, their demented laughter occasionally being interrupted by the increasingly frequent sound of static. "Despair! Despair! Despair -_zzzzt_-n your hollowness! You are noth-_zzzzzt-_ut an incomplete puppet!"

The nightmarish world disappeared in a flash of light…I felt nothing more.

**-VARDANT-**

_…_  
><em><br>Activating mental functions numbers 3 through 22._  
><em><br>Query: Positronic brain status?_  
><em><br>Answer: All signals are at an acceptable level of functionality._  
><em><br>VARDANT Unit Number 47 all systems online._  
><em><br>Removal of FACTOR SUBSTITUTE from unidentified spatial anomaly from unidentified source…confirmed._  
><em><br>Recovery of FACTOR SUBSTITUTE from unidentified spatial anomaly from unidentified source…confirmed._  
><em><br>An unknown foreign substance from the unidentified spatial anomaly from unidentified source has tainted FACTOR SUBSTITUTE. Parameters reduced by 34% due to foreign taint. Life may be at risk if corruption spreads any further._  
><em><br>Initiating countermeasures._  
><em><br>Taint has contaminated 27% of FACTOR SUBSTITUTE's constitution. Purifying._  
><em><br>Taint Level at 23%_  
><em><br>Taint Level at 11%_  
><em><br>Taint Level at 6-t0f^#(-_  
><em><strong><br>ERROR**_  
><em><br>Process stopped with 6.376953% remaining, unable to completely purify._  
><em><br>Taint has infected and is proceeding to alter the memories of the FACTOR SUBSTITUTE. Taint has been integrated, unable to remove. The cancer is spreading at a rate of .2% a second._  
><em><br>Query: Purge infected areas? _[Yes/No]  
><em><br>Answer: [Yes]_  
><em><br>16% of memories tainted. Removing…_  
><em><br>Tainted files purged. Memory left: 78% of original._  
><em><br>Statement: Enough to function as needed._  
><em><br>Clearing untainted short-term memory of the events within the anomaly, possible trauma may cause parameters to lower._  
><em><br>Cleared._  
><em><br>Situation returned to norm, crisis averted._  
><em><br>…Awakening FACTOR SUBSTITUTE, VARDANT Unit Number 47, all systems shutting down._

**-VARDANT-**

_Hermes Audio Dairy Entry #32_

Cut! Cut! _Cut! __**Cu-**_

-No…calm down. Currently experiencing processing slowdown, unacceptable.

…

It got pulled out, how…unexpected. I seem to have underestimated the machina's capabilities and its zeal for self-preservation, to escape from my TATARI is no small feat. This is a minor inconvenience I must admit; it has slowed down my plans by approximately four months, thirteen days, five hours, twenty-six minutes, and fifty-four seconds. Rounded up by the nearest decimal of course.

The source of the problem it seems is that the 'raw materials' used to make that VARDANT unit were of higher quality than the norm. Completely unexpected as it was a mass-production model, and those weren't exactly renown for their…high standards.

Such an oversight will not happen again.

Though the likelihood of it being mere chance that such a high quality item got mixed in with the rest of the batch was sixty-three point eight percent. But if we take into account that the creators had no idea that magic even existed the likelihood of that being true increased by thirty-seven point two percent.

They lucked out on this one, truly.

A machina with active magic circuits is a rare thing. One that is able to interfere with a reality marble is even more so. In addition to which, that VARDANT unit found a factor that is capable of magecraft…the chances of that being mere coincidence are less than seven percent. Someone had to have guided fate to make this happen. That means that another great power has invested in the debacle, yet another possibility that I have to take into account during my planning. If I hadn't blocked Zelretch's access to this dimension I would have attributed it to that eccentric vampire's meddling, he is simply too nosy for his own good.

Saying that I had blocked his access is a bit misleading; one cannot simply overcome the Second so easily after all. In manipulating the rumors around the planet I was able to make this dimension seem uninteresting, stagnant, if you will. Zelretch is known to be attracted to interesting events like a moth to a flame, as long as nothing 'exciting' appears to be happening here he will find this dimension to be unappealing. I don't expect this deception to remain under his notice for too much longer, but you can expect no less when dealing with the Wizard Marshall.

The fact that there is a deception at all will inevitably attract him here, but that is a risk that I must take. I absolutely cannot have him interfering with my plans just yet; such an event would be…ruinous. I calculate that there is a ninety-seven percent chance of my plans failing should the Wizard Marshall make an early appearance, so this must be done.

And on this side of the metaphorical fence I have Ishigami. With the machina he controls (or is it the other way around?) his knowledge about all the possible outcomes is troubling. There is a thirty-three point three percent possibility that he already knows about my presence. Unsurprisingly, I have been able to find almost nothing about him. All I managed to get was a beaten photograph of the man in what looked like an old army uniform, one from World War Two no less.

The fact that he remained unchanged to this day despite the obvious age of the photograph was yet more proof that the nanomachines here function the same as they did there.

Dead Apostles created through the power of science instead of magecraft, without any of their traditional weaknesses humanity as a whole rushed to become what they once hated and feared. Even without the lust for blood or erosion from Gaia immortality always has its price, something most did not realize in their selfish rush for eternity. And when the whole of humanity gained it, they paid for it with their own extinction.

Shirou Emiya, have you yet realized what you have paid for yours?

**-VARDANT-**

_April 25th, 2012_

_~Beep~beep~beep~beep~_

I'm still alive.

The unfaltering beeping of a heart monitor had roused me from my slumber, but attempting to get up to stretch I realized that I couldn't move from my prone position. I was in a hospital room, and as per usual the color white was everywhere I looked.

Glancing at my arms I noticed that they were bound to the bed with solid steel straps, after trying to adjust my position I felt that my legs were in the same predicament. It seems that I severely underestimated the nanomachines regeneration ability if they managed to restore the lower half of my body.

I hope they managed to re-grow _it_too.

"Ah, Mister Emiya you're finally awake." I turned my head toward the source of the voice and saw what appeared to be a nurse for he was dressed in the classic blue outfit denoting his position. He was writing on a clipboard that he held in the crook of his arm, glancing up at my prone form he gave me a lopsided grin. "Sorry about that, we had to strap you down because your recovery process was…how to say…quite chaotic. You apparently lost consciousness the moment you pulled the Endou twins out of Deceive, and while we were able to retrieve both machinae with little trouble…the real problem started after your cockpit was opened. It turns out that the stress of trying to regenerate half your body created a surprising amount of nerve feedback."

The blank stare I was giving him made him pause and rub the bridge of his nose. "So in layman's terms your body was having strong spasms with very short intervals in between. If you add that to a factor's enhanced strength and the jagged metallic waste your nanomachines seem to generate during the restoration process…then you end up with what is probably the most dangerous unconscious guy on the planet."

I didn't know how to respond to that. "Umm, I'm sorry?"

The nurse sighed while still scribbling notes on the board. "You should be. It took three soldiers in full body armor to finally remove you from VARDANT after you injured the paramedics sent to assist you. We had to practically wrap you in chains to move you here." The nurse paused and used his pen to point at my legs that were still under the bed covers. "Thankfully we were able to reattach your lower half with little difficulty, nanomachines have certainly turned out to be useful for medical purposes. If you weren't a factor you certainly would be dead by now, you should really take better care of yourself."

All I could do is give a sheepish grin, if saving lives meant that my body took a beating then I would gladly do this all over again. Given that I probably will end up in a situation like this again at some point…but better not tell the nurse that. "I'll try, the experience was as unpleasant for me as it was for you."

The man merely nodded absentmindedly and turned towards the door. "Well since you're awake I'll fetch President Ishigami, he has been waiting for you to come out of your weeklong coma." With that said he exited the room and closed the door.

I was out for a whole week, what happened to the twins since then? And…he just left me here still strapped to this bed! "Aren't you at least going to untie me? Hey! Come back here!" He did that on purpose!

I need to go to the bathroom!

**-VARDANT-**

"Hiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

The next time the door opened a flying object suddenly assaulted me, nearly making me cry out in pain. The object in question, unsurprisingly, turned out to be the president. He was rubbing the side of his face against mine while babbling incoherently; it was disturbingly reminiscent of one of my cat's most regular habits.

"I came as soon as I was told about the incident. Oh, I was so worried! I heard you got cut in half! That could easily kill a person, _even_with the nanomachines."-was pretty much all I was able to get out of it.

"Yes, yes. I am glad to see you too." His assault on my already sore body was starting to really hurt. "Now can you get me out of these restraints already? They are starting to chafe." Jumping back Ishigami rubbed his neck with a flush of embarrassment upon his face, yet I somehow got the feeling that he wasn't embarrassed at all. Shameless man.

"Ahahaha…I completely forgot about that, I'll get you out immediately." Ishigami snapped his fingers, and responding to the command the manacles snapped open with a clack. Rubbing my wrists in an attempt to get circulation back I slid my legs off the bed, ready to test whether they were up to the job of supporting my weight. I was about to put my feet on the floor when the president placed a hand on my knee, stopping me in my tracks. "Before you go running off there are a few matters that we have to discuss. In his will Takuto Endou left-"

"Wait, will? That means…Takuto is dead?" I suppose I should've expected that, but it still came as a shock that he perished. With Wako obviously among the dead that left the twins orphans, not a fun position to be in. The conflagration that killed my parents left me with one of my worst memories, so I could understand what they were going through somewhat.

Hopefully they will remember theirs unlike me, as I cannot recall mine at all.

The president sighed morosely, shaking his head. "He died soon after the incident due to the injuries he sustained, unfortunately there was nothing that could save him…so we helped him pass on as painlessly as we could." I could see the regret in Ishigami's expression, understandable given that even with all the power he wielded he could not save the life of one person. I felt that myself was when Ilya was dying, all I could do was observe as she wasted away. Shaking myself out of my reverie I gave a large sigh, there currently are things that I need to take care of.

"How are the twins, and what about the funeral? I would like to pay my respects as Takuto had been a great friend to me since I came here." Even though it was a pale consolation for not being able to save him I would still like to attend. Plus it was simply the polite thing to do. The will could come after that was dealt with.

"Physically the twins are fine, and they are taking the loss of their parents as well as could be expected." The president then sat down beside me on the bed, resting his chin in his hands. "As for the funeral, I am afraid that you missed it. Due to the massive repairs that are underway the funeral ended up being a rush job. It was held yesterday at the Aoyama Municipal Cemetery, where he now lies buried along with his wife."

I missed it? By such a short margin too? T-that's…absurd! Ridiculous! Unfair! It may have been the dream influencing my actions, but I just didn't care. With my teeth clenching hard enough to crack a tooth I could feel my nanomachines responding to my anger by distorting facial features to resemble a machina's.

"Why couldn't you have waited a bit longer…?" I couldn't stop my arms from shaking in suppressed rage, knuckles white from the effort it took not to strangle the president right there.

Without warning both my wrists were grabbed and thrust down to the head of the bed, effectively immobilizing me. Ishigami was glaring at me with a hardened expression, the change in his eyes indicating that he was using enhanced strength to subdue me.

"Calm down!" I was surprised by the amount of force held within his voice. "The nanomachines within you are responding to your emotions and are amplifying them, if you don't pause you will just go out of control." Letting go of my arms once he saw that I was shocked into silence, Ishigami gave a great sigh. "You have to rule over your impulses, not the other way around. You may have been living with the nanomachines for over two years, but you still have much to learn about them." Turning to me he grinned. "Are you ready to hear me out or do I have to tie you up?"

I put my head in my hands with a sigh; a man at my age shouldn't have what amounted to a temper tantrum, enhanced or not. Rubbing my wrists in phantom-pain I answered his (probably) rhetorical question. "According to the nurse I was 'tied up' for a week, I don't need to be again anytime soon."

Ishigami sighed, the tension in his body fading away. "That is good, you have calmed down. I understand why you were angry but having the funeral so soon was unavoidable. There are politics involved, red tape and all that. Takuto was the one who was in charge of the experiment, thus the blame for the incident fell on his head. The exact reasons for all this would take too long to explain, just know that the ceremony simply had to be finished before the repair efforts started. I postponed it as long as I could…but you didn't wake up soon enough." Seeing my head fall in depression Ishigami quickly amended his statement.

"N-not that it was your fault! I heard that you did your best even when fighting with mortal wounds, so it was to be expected that your injuries would keep you down for quite some time." Standing up and stretching out his back, Ishigami made his way to the door. "It was callous of me to bring such morbid things up moments after you woke up from a coma. In addition to that your mind is still unstable from all the nanomachine activity. Come to my office after you've settled a bit, it is a much more suitable place to discuss things like this anyway." Grinning in an overly saccharine manner, he opened the door.

"...Besides, it seems like you have visitors."

Two small flying objects followed by a large one suddenly assaulted me, my bruised body can't take much more of this. The objects in question turned out to be the Endou twins and, surprisingly, a bawling Captain Igarashi. The sudden onslaught pinned me to the bed. It seemed that they were repeating the previous actions of the president, babbling and all.

Just snottier…and times three.

"W-we were all so worried!" Izuna sobbed into by hospital gown-clad chest, tears dampening the fabric. I patted him on his head in an attempt to placate the crying boy, while he did stop hiccupping the tears continued. Not that I could blame the kid, he just lost his parents after all. Turning my head towards his sister I noticed that she was doing the same to my shoulder, and judging by the weight on my back Shinobu was following suit.

That last part was more than a little disturbing.

I managed to pull my arm out of Shizuna's grip and place it on her head in the same manner as what I had done with her brother. After waiting for their sniffles to abate I wrapped my arms around their shoulders and pulled them into my chest. Thankfully Shinobu was savvy enough to get off me, out of the corner of my eye I saw that he took up position leaning on the wall near the door.

Turning my attention back to the twins I saw that they has their faces buried in my gown, the spreading feeling of dampness indicated what they were both doing at that moment. I was helpless and could do nothing but let them get this out of their systems. I sympathize with them, of that there is no doubt, but if they keep at this I will be sopping wet...and cold. This gown is not the best-insulated piece of clothing there is after all.

The fact that I am naked underneath it sure doesn't help

After letting the twins cry out their tears I grasped their shoulders and gently pushed their bodies away from my own. It was at that moment that I realized just how small and frail they actually were. They had just lost both their parents in a traumatic event, and at such a young age too. It was a miracle that Izuna and Shizuna were both still functioning.

But now it was their destiny to fight, they both had become factors. When it came to my own battles I _chose_to be involved, these two on the other hand lacked that luxury. The machina seem to be quite eager to get factors for some reason, willing or not.

But that could just be my imagination.

After seeing that their tears had dried I reached up and ruffled their hair. "It's okay, I'm not going anywhere." I spoke to those in front of me, yet those words seemed to be assuring myself more than the children.

"…Not anywhere, not anymore."

_[Break]_

**Author's note: **Please tell me what you think. I live off your reviews after all. I do not know when the next chapter will be out...but please be patient. I have two other stories that I am working on after all.


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